The July sales numbers are out and the Chevy Volt continues to electrify (get it?) the country. GM sold … 125 Volts last month! Way back in March I made fun of the Volt for selling 281 units in February. Turns out, February was a good month. But wait, there’s more! GM says they’re going to increase production to 5,000 Volts per month in order to keep up with demand. You see, they claim that the reason the Volt isn’t selling is that they can’t keep enough cars on the lot. A GM spokeswoman recently claimed that they are “virtually sold out.” Which is virtually true. Mark Modica called around his local Chevy dealers and found plenty of Volts waiting for an environmentally conscious driver to bring them home.
All told, GM has sold close to 2,700 Volts. (Funny aside: There’s a Volt in my neighborhood and a Volt that parks in my garage at work. So I see almost 0.1 percent of all the Volts in America on a daily basis.) But hey, the EV future is just around the corner.
Even though I don’t think I would buy an EV, I don’t like that people would be hating on them and resisting the thought of them, which is how the article is written.
I’ve driven our demo here for about 130 miles. It’s honestly a pretty sweet car. GM needs to work on the price a bit, which will happen.
We got 12 in of the 2011 model and we sold each one within a day of it arriving into our dealership. We already have some on order for 2012, which are in production now.
Not sure if they are basing the numbers on how many volts were delivered for the month. Since production was stopped for them to retool Hammondsport plant.
The technology is impressive. It’s a very comfortable ride. It’s got a good amount of power, and there is no shifting feeling. It’s like playing a video game while you are driving.
So if you get the chance to drive one, do it. Like it or not, this is what you’re going to see a lot more of in the future.
And based on the 1100 miles on the Volt, it’s averaged 109mpg. It’s still on the first tank of gas.
Yeah, I guess, but if you’re that bad at planning your EV trip you probably shouldn’t have bought an EV. Besides, does the company installing them (and spending all the money to do so) honestly think it will ever make it’s money back marketing to stranded EV owners? The whole thing doesn’t make much sense to me.
Installing them at malls maybe. Definitely close by major office complexes, colleges, schools, movie theaters etc. You know, places where people tend to stay for 2+ hours. I really don’t understand picking Walgreens, a where the average stop time is probably < 10 minutes.
So a high speed DC charge of 10 minutes for about 30 miles. I bet you pay a huge premium for that though.
Here’s an idea. Tax credits for businesses that install charging stations for employees. They could still bill the employee for the electricity used (at whatever rate the business is charged) but the tax credit would offset the cost of having the charger installed.
One of my customers for the Volt was in Virginia. Her employer received an incentive to put in charging stations. So they charge it at night at home, then they charge it at work during the day. Still on the original tank of gas. Some states are giving customers free charging stations too. NYS is behind the 8 ball on this. They try to grab $$$ whereever they can. All of our Volts were sold out of state and I believe 9 out of 10 had additional incentives offered by their states.
A few years back the same batteries were going for about 10K to give you some sort of reference. It’s not what it’s made out of as much as cost to make it along with supply and demand.
I disagree in part–I do think the materials are an important economic component. Lithium ion batteries have improved from a materials sense, which has made them less expensive (i.e. the development of cathode materials which supplant cobalt with nickel or manganese, both of which are more abundant). Supply and demand may drive lithium prices up, even as the cost to manufacture the battery pack goes down.
China is investing heavily in lithium-alternative battery research.
id rather a 24000 dollar prius that averages 50mpg and doesnt impact my electric bill also
btw a prius’s battery pack is currently 2700 retail, for a 2000 model it is still close to 10,000
hybrids/electric cars arent the future… they are the present and people need to realize the benefits… I would rather a toyota over a chevy any day , but thats a personal preference
