Why The Volt Will Fail:
Updated: 9/28/08
As you may know, Chevrolet has begun to hype up its newest environmental endeavor, the Volt. And while the project looks good, and does feature some very nice design concepts, problems that will limit or nullify the Volts potential (pardon the pun) for success are already becoming apparent.
Critical Problems:
The Volt is not an Electric CarDespite GM calling the to the Volt as an electric car, the vehicle is in fact a Series Hybrid. Although the car can function as a traditional electric vehicle, the range is rather poor at only 40 miles.The car will rely on its full sized engine to generate electricity when driving any further.
While series hybrids can be great vehicles, GM has gone about this very, very wrong. They've installed a 1.8 liter (or 1.4 depending on the press release you believe) engine in the vehicle, which is basically dead weight to be carried around and tremendous additional cost.
Instead, GM should have included a much smaller engine, in the 500 to 600cc range, and used the extra weight and space savings for a larger battery pack.
The Volt is Expensive
The price on the Volt has bounced around, but is now expected to cost around $40,000. A cost like that put the vehicle out of reach of 75% of the potential buyers.
The Volt Will
-Not- Save You Money
In addition to the high up front cost, the volt is not likely to save
you much money. Lets compare the Volt to the Prius. Lets say you're
driving the 40 miles per day GM is targeting.
| Volt | Prius | |
| Initial Cost | $40,000 | $20,000 |
| Cost Per Mile | 3 cents per mile | 6.3 cents per mile |
| Cost of driving 40 miles per day for a year |
$438 | $920 |
So, with the Volt you can save $482 a year in gas over the Prius. But, since the Volt costs twice as much as the Prius, it would take you 42 years to see any savings.
The Volt is Slow
When asked on the Colbert Report how the Volt performs, GM's Vice Chairman Bob Lutz said: "adequately". As Cobert continued to question if he could "lay down some rubber" with the Volt, Lutz's response was that the environmentally concerned buyer's should/will not be concerned with performance. There are some major problems with saying that.
Firstly, an electric car should be able to out perform a standard car of equivalent price. Secondly, at a $40,000 price tag, what does the volt have to offer buyer's in return for that extra price? If not performance, and not gas savings, what incentive does anyone have to buying a Volt?
The Volt is Rushed to Production
GM is doing a lot of guess work on the Volt. The batteries technology was rushed into production, and has been checked using accelerated testing. While accelerated testing has its place, when testing the long term (5+ years) life of batteries, 6 months of strenuous testing is not enough to insure their durability.
While they settled on lithium polymer batteries, the brand has not yet been announced. If they used the more expensive A123 battery technology, the battery pack will be durable with decent longevity. If they used the cheaper battery option, the battery will have very limited range and longevity, and will prove the volt a very, very poor automobile.
Equally problematic are the control systems electronics, which in addition to being rushed, have been given a back seat to the battery pack technology.
GM is stuck in the past
Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, GM is limiting their market. Essentially, the only people who would by this car are die hard environmentalists who make a lot of money, and thats a pretty tiny niche. GM shouldn't try to build an environmentally friendly car for environmentalists. They should try to produce a great car for the general public, that is also environmentally friendly.