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Townhall
Finance
Chevy
Volt Heads for Fiery Crash
John Ransom
Jul 08, 2013
The
good news for GM these days is
that no one has been consumed in a fiery death due to engine
compartment fires
since the Chevy Volt was discovered to spontaneous combust after
accidents
shortly after production began.
The
bad news for the company is
that while Chevy Volt sales in June set a record, prior to June their
sales for
2013 sucked despite general auto sales setting post-crash records.
“With
signs that sales of its
Chevrolet Volt battery car could be coming unplugged,” reported NBC
News in
June, “General Motors is offering potential buyers as much as $5,000 in
incentives – making it the latest maker to try to cut prices in a bid
to boost
lagging demand for electric vehicles.”
In
June the company reported 2,698
Volts sold thanks to those drastic discounts by GM. In fact, all
battery-powered cars have seen deep price cuts due to disappointing
sales.
“For
the first five months of this
year,” said NBC News, “GM has sold only 7,157 of what it prefers to
call an
extended-range electric vehicle, or E-REV. May sales, in particular,
fell 4.3
percent, to 1,607. By comparison, the overall U.S. automotive market
was up 8.2
percent for the month. According to a report by Inside EVs, Chevy
dealers have
more than 9,000 Volts clogging inventories, vehicles they need to clear
out
before the 2014 models start rolling in.”
That
makes 6,302 excess Volts just
weeks before the 2014 models are supposed to come off the assembly
line. Or, to
calculate another way, that’s 2 1/3 months of inventory assuming all
the
suckers haven’t already purchased Volts in the new and reduced “free”
lunch
program run by General Motors.
The
ridiculous list price for the
Volt started out at $46,000. Since then it’s been lowered to $39,995.
The price
is still ridiculous because the Volt is basically the Chevy Cruze with
a big
battery.
The
Cruze by contrast has an MSRP
of between $17,000-$23,000.
To
lull consumers, the federal
government gives a credit to Volt buyers of $7,500, plus GM, starting
in June,
discounted the price by another $4,000-$5,000 depending on the model
year.
That
means a buyer can pay around
$28,000 for the privilege of buying a car that goes 38 miles on a full
battery charge
and has all the amenities of car that costs $5k less even after Volt
discounts,
subsidies, giveaways.
Read
the rest of the article and watch the
video at Townhall Finance
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