GM-VOLT : Chevy Volt Electric Car Site

Cutting edge lithium ion battery packs being built for the Volt are expensive. Some experts guess they cost up to $10,000 although certainly GM nor their suppliers are saying what the actual numbers will be.

When one looks at the close to $40,000 price tag for the Volt it is recognized that the pack makes up a significant component of that.

But two packs?

GM vice-chairman Bob Lutz recently told Cars.com that the current battery pack prototypes are “performing flawlessly” even in harsh testing environments. He said however that “longevity is the unanswered question”.

GM has previously said they expect to warranty the Volt batteries for 10 years/150,000 miles. In this new interview Lutz said “We’re being conservative on battery life. For our cost calculations we’re assuming each car will need a replacement during the warranty period.”

Source (Cars.com)

GM vice -chairman Bob Lutz told reporters some of the Volts recently increased pricing reflects the high cost of warrantying the lithium-ion batteries.

He said:

“We are going to bake in a very substantial warranty cost for the battery in our overall pricing calculation,”

and

“We need to be conservative, simply because it’s the first time we’ve done anything like this.”

Lutz did not give reporters details on the packs cost or duration of any warranty, but PHEV analyst Menahem Anderman told the reporter that the Volt’s pack would cost about $10,000.

One interesting corollary on Lutz’ comments is that GM might no longer be thinking about leasing the battery at this point.
Source (Canada.com)