SocraticGadfly: Will Volt jump-start Chevy?

September 16, 2008

Will Volt jump-start Chevy?

Fuhhgeddaboutit

NOT at a $40K price tag, as rumored. And, when you’ve had this car in concept for two years, with a promise of moving toward production the whole time, not to release the price point …

Well, that’s like a studio refusing to release copies of a new movie for advance screening.

Plus, it’s got other problems, including seating just four, not five, and many people finding the production version having a bit of ugliness problem compared to the original concept version.

Now, on the performance side, it has the equivalent of 150hp, which ranks ahead of the current Prius, version 2.0, and tops out at 100 mph. More tech, and pix, here.

Throw in the fact that Prius 3.0, at least in conventional hybrid version and most likely in plug-in form also, will be to market ahead of Volt, and I can’t see GM selling more than 20,000 a year.

On the price point, that’s why Prius didn’t make 3.0 a plug-in version from the ground up, and Toyota could have sold it as a loss leader.

That said, it may try to do that anyway.

No comments: