Back to the Chevy Volt Price Speculation

Chevy Volt on Display








One of the only questions remaining for the vaunted Chevy Volt is where GM will place the final MSRP? With a reasonable price tag and a US Federal tax rebate of $7,500, the Chevy Volt could have a very broad market. If the Volt comes in at $32K then the final retail cost would be $24,500. A little more than the average small sedan price but still quite reasonable. Would you pay this much for a cutting edge plug-in hybrid vehicle?

Tony Posawatz is the Chevy Volt vehicle line executive.

From TheGlobeandMail.com:

The questions ran fast and furious as Posawatz worked the crowd.

“How much?”

“We have not priced it yet,” said an affable Posawatz, the father of two teenagers himself and in town mostly to explain the car to Olympic big shots and corporate honchos. He's heard the “How much?” question a million times and has been repeating that same answer every time.

In addition to being in charge of the Volt's development and launch, Posawatz is also the car's No. 1 salesman – has been since GM said it would make the Volt a real production model. That came after the General created a stir with its Volt concept car at the 2007 Detroit auto show. That silky two-door coupe concept, however, is nothing at all like the four-door, four-seat hatchback that has become the Volt production car.

The Volt, which GM repeatedly insists is a pure electric car with an anxiety-eliminating gas engine on board, remains the face of the “new” GM. The gas engine, a 1.4-litre four-banger borrowed from GM's European operations, is there only to charge the T-shaped lithium-ion battery pack running up the car's spine.

The batteries have a range of about 64 km. When they have no more juice, the gas engine kicks in to recharge them and keep drivers moving along. At no time are the Volt's wheels driven by the gas engine, however. The Volt is a pure EV.

Posawatz tells the students about GM research that says a 64-km range is more than enough for most commuters. But just in case, the gas engine is there. It eliminates what has become known in the EV world as “range anxiety.”

“The Volt is designed to be your everyday car,” he says. “It's not for towing and it's not your vacation car. It's your everyday car. The car you drive to work.”

Speed? Officially, 0-100 km/h in nine seconds or less, but insiders are saying a sub-eight-second sprint might be possible. Top speed: 160 km/hour.

Then he returns to the cost question. He simply must. The news media and the relentless blogosphere have been alive with predictions that the Volt will sticker for as much as $40,000 (U.S.). GM has not and really cannot confirm or deny that number.

What Posawatz is willing to say is that if government incentives for EVs are figured into the reduced overall ownership costs of driving a Volt, the real cost to a Volt buyer “is easily less than $30,000.”

Posawatz is referring to the $7,500 the U.S. federal government will subsidize Volt buyers. Ontario has also said it plans to give EV buyers as much as a $10,000 rebate – what some GM rivals call the “Volt subsidy.”

The B.C.government is expected to put in place an EV subsidy, as are other provinces. Ottawa remains silent on the matter.

Posawatz fields other questions, too, and they are not strictly about economics. Dollars-and-cents matters consume the new media covering the Volt, but not these young people – not yet, at least.

When the gas engine kicks in, he says in response to a question about what it feels like when the range-extender fires up to charge the batteries, “most of the time, you can't even feel it.” The batteries are designed to have a 10-year lifespan and even then, they'll carry a 70-per-cent charge and have a useful life beyond the car itself.

What nightmares will buyers face in getting replacement parts?

EVs, he says, are fundamentally less complicated than internal combustion engine cars. They should be easier to maintain and fix. On top of that, Volt dealers will have technicians thoroughly trained in keeping Volts on the road. In fact, he points out, nine prototypes are being winter tested right now in the frigid cold of Kapuskasing, Ont., at GM's winter testing facility.

His final message: “I think electric cars are the future. Whether the electricity will come from fuel cells or batteries or what is the question. But for us, we like to say burn rubber, not petroleum.”

With that, Posawatz and his small support crew (two public relations types, a technician and another engineer) jump into the Volt and a shiny Cadillac SRX crossover wagon and head down the mountain to the Olympic Village or thereabouts. The Volt may be the future – and these students are certainly interested in that future – but the present is still filled with 800 million gasoline and electric cars navigating roadways around the world – Vancouver included.