The new Volt has cleaned up the styling relative to its predecessor. On that basis it should do better than the Bolt, along with the more flexible travel capacity. The new Volt has been out since last October but is currently selling at a similar rate ~2,000/month as the first generation sold during its peak years 2012 and 2013.
Monthly Plug-In Sales Scorecard
I do like that the new VOLT is at least holding serve against the Tesla Model S. But really? It should be selling at least six times as fast.
Supposedly first gen Volts were being run in EV mode ~70% of the time. There is no question in my mind that the Volt is a "greener" car than the Prius. Yet in 2015 Volt US sales were 15,000 and Prius US sales were 118,000. I'm not buying that the Prius is a better driving experience either. While GM may not have been marketing the Volt that enthusiastically nationwide, every weekend I see cheap lease deals as low as $139/month offered for the Volt, and that continues with the new version. I attribute most of the sales disparity to the relative legacy reputations of Toyota and GM with the car buying public. Especially the "green car" buying public who think first of Hummers, Suburbans, etc. in association with GM.
All of those are good points. But I stand by my pessimistic viewpoint of traditional automobile manufacturers. General Motors honestly does not believe, despite the fact the Toyota Prius has sold over 100,000 units per year for 11 years, that the American car buying public wants truly fuel efficient or electric vehicles at all. Chevrolet's nationwide network of
'independent franchised dealerships' is perfectly happy to direct anyone and everyone that is interested in the VOLT to take a look at the CRUZE and MALIBU instead. That is why those cars sport in the neighborhood of a 10:1 sales ratio versus the VOLT. And GM is perfectly fine with that result. They believe that having an attractive highly fuel efficient car would take away from their bread and butter sales. Somehow they have not noted that despite the success of the Prius, Corolla and Camry sales have been steadily climbing the whole time too, reaching heights that neither CRUZE nor MALIBU can hope to attain.
Of course Model 3 will be a vastly superior car. But it will also be considerably more expensive than Volt or Bolt for at least one full year of production, and maybe indefinitely (see lease deals above). Model 3 is a direct competitor to BMW 3 series in price and driving dynamics. Both GM products are aimed at a lower price/performance/luxury segment of the car market. There is room for both Model 3 and Volt/Bolt to succeed. Whether that happens may depend upon GM living down its legacy reputation. This can take a long time as evidenced by Cadillac, which has been building cars well reviewed by the automotive press for close to a decade with only a modest uptick in sales so far.
More good points! The problem is that GM doesn't believe there is room for VOLT and BOLT to truly succeed in the same showroom as CRUZE and MALIBU. They want to protect the interests of their actual Customers, the
'independent franchised dealerships', who don't care one whit about technology, fuel economy, global warming, or emissions cutbacks.
GM could eliminate their currently perceived state by making sure their remaining brands aren't placed to compete directly against each other. Chevrolet should probably get the sub-$60,000 market to itself
(with the Corvette being an exception, of course). Buick could move up-range to $70,000 to $120,000 price points. Cadillac could once again become
'The Standard of the WORLD!' by occupying the $150,000 and up range. But right now, all three have cars that are priced in the $30,000 to $50,000 range. You have to actually WANT a Buick to resist saving money on a Chevy, or moving up to a Cadillac instead. They won't make these changes, of course, because they have already lost market share overall. Now, each Division is just scrapping for unit sales, and not doing so well in that regard.
I have sympathy with Bob Lutz, who targeted the Prius as the market leader in "green cars" during the 2000's and thus developed a similar priced but better product. But he had it wrong from a marketing standpoint. When gas became cheap, market demand for most hybrid-type cars slumped because the gas cost savings don't pencil out vs. the upfront higher price and mechanical complexity anymore. I'm sure this also explains why BMW's sales of the 330e are miniscule vs. the $5,400 cheaper 330i.
Someone posted this link to a
WIRED article that paints everything GM has done the past three-to-six years in the best possible light:
How GM Beat Tesla to the First True Mass-Market Electric Car
I don't quite buy into it, but it is a good read all the same. Even if all you do is laugh through the whole thing.
Elon's marketing strategy of building the market from the top down with a BEV superior to ICE for many reasons other than the environment turned out to be the right call. Tesla demand is growing despite the cheap gas prices.
Exactly. That's why I believe the same strategy would work when going after the full-sized pickup truck market. I disagree with those that think Tesla should make a small, short range, local runabout truck like a Colorado/Ranger/Frontier. I also disagree with anyone who says they should go after the basic, plain vanilla, unadorned F-150. I think they should instead take on the darlings of the industry, the Big Brothers that everyone wants to be like some day, the full-sized Class III, Class IV, and Class V capable haulers that are of the Heavy Duty and Super Duty designation. Those tend to cost the most, and it is a good bet that a very high capacity battery pack could be made ready for that market by 2020 or so. Though it might well require a Gigafactory of its own be built in Arizona or Texas to keep up with demand...
