"The Volt" May BE SCRAPPED!- NEVER BUILT!!

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by Christ

jamesqf -

Isn't the average truck/large SUV already priced at 40K?

I don't know about average - don't really pay that much attention, since I'm not in the market for one at any price - but yes, that was the point I was trying to make: that they can easily get up into the $40 range, but people still buy them when there are cheaper options.

The "need it for work" argument doesn't really fly well, either. Even assuming that they do need that size truck, the base models such as are sold to e.g. construction companies for actual work use are quite a bit cheaper.

[srortega]

General Motors is investing $230 million in four factories that will help produce the Chevrolet Volt and Cruze, two cars absolutely vital to its “reinvention” as a leaner, greener company building smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles.

The four factories in Flint, Michigan, will employ more than 500 people. They will produce the engines, body panels and automated machinery needed to build the automobiles, which hit the market next year. “These four GM manufacturing plants have a key role in GM’s production of the next-generation of fuel-efficient vehicles,” manufacturing manager Larry Zahner said in a statement.

One of the plants, Flint Engine South, is being retooled — at a cost of $202 million — to build the 1.4-liter engine generator for the Chevrolet Volt range-extended electric vehicle and the 1.4-liter turbocharged engine for Chevrolet Cruze compact. GM had long planned to build the engines in Flint but had to scrap that plan in December when its bankruptcy became imminent. But with things starting to look up at General Motors after emerging from bankruptcy in July, the plan is back on track.

GM says the Flint plant will produce 40 engines per day when it comes online next year. That will ramp up to 800 per day by the fall, when the Volt is slated to see production. Reuters says the “first batch” of engines slated for the Volt — which goes into production next fall — will come from a GM factory in Austria until Flint Engine South is up to speed.

General Motors also will spend $1.7 million refurbishing press lines at the Flint Metal Center that will produce body panels for the Volt. Another $30 million will be spent on the Grand Blanc Weld Tool Center, which will build the robotic welders that will assemble Volt and Cruze bodies. The rest of the cash is slated for the Flint Tool and Die operation that will build and test dies needed to build the Volt.

The last of the pre-production Volt prototypes — cars that look, run and drive just like the production cars — rolled out of GM’s technical center in Warren, Michigan, on Friday. “This is our shining moment after all we’ve been through with the bankruptcy this year,” Andy Pawlaczyk, chairman of UAW Local 160, told the Detroit Free Press. General Motors has been using the 74 prototypes, called integration vehicles, for testing and to prepare the Detroit-Hamtramck assembly plant for production. The testing included a run to the summit of Pike’s Peak.

Still no official word on what the Volt will cost, but the unofficial “I want one list” our friend Lyle Dennis is keeping over at GM-Volt.com has topped 50,000.

GM Gears Up for Volt Production With $230M Investment | Autopia | Wired.com

[Nevyn]

Is THAT where they get the 230 MPG rating from? Millions per government?

[Jammer]

Very interesting news there, thank you for posting it here. I was raised in and near Flint Michigan and moved away due to the bad economy around 1998. Now the economy is as bad here as it used to be up there. I see the number of jobs you posted for Flint and I think to myself how the system works.... The people that have worked for GM (in any city) the longest will be offered the jobs in Flint, so likely many people will be moving to a citing with an unemployment rate of something like 30% (Now that's what I THINK my uncle said it was, but there is also a number for the COUNTY which Flint is in which has an extremely high # too)- If I'm not mistaken the unemployment for either Flint OR Genesee County - either one of them had a number around 39% unemployment!! Now if that is true, and I got such numbers from my Uncle that is just now moving out of Flint due to the high crime rate now present on his street, just imagine all of the people that do not collect unemployment yet still have no job. Wow, that's one place I am glad I moved away from. No offense to the members up there, and if it makes anyone feel better our numbers are around 12% and climbing in Kentucky- it used to be a great place to work, but not now.

All of that money it's a pity they would not need more workers. Oh well, I guess that is just the road we are on and their is no stopping it.

[srortega]

Originally Posted by Nevyn

Is THAT where they get the 230 MPG rating from? Millions per government?

They make that claim without telling you how much electricity they used to charge the car overnight. The car also is supposed to have a 40 mile electric range, so if the test is done within that 40 miles the true MPG of the 1.4litre gas generator is not going to be represented. What they need is to show the miles per kWh as well as the kWh of the generator. That would give us a more acurate representation of the cost to opperate this car.

[Jammer]

Originally Posted by srortega

They make that claim without telling you how much electricity they used to charge the car overnight. The car also is supposed to have a 40 mile electric range, so if the test is done within that 40 miles the true MPG of the 1.4litre gas generator is not going to be represented. What they need is to show the miles per kWh as well as the kWh of the generator. That would give us a more acurate representation of the cost to opperate this car.

THEY CHANGED THEIR WEBSITE!!
http://www.chevrolet.com/pages/open/...future/volt.do

They used to list the estimated cost AND how many KWH it took to charge the car for aprox. 8 hours a full charge. The way the site reads NOW they have stricken that right from the home page for The Volt! ARGH!!!!!!!! As I recall it was a cost of 75 cents to $2.50 (USD) which all depended on one's cost for electricity. For example, in my home state electricity is bought via a co-op and were a coal state, so our electricity is fairly cheap in comparison to many other states. So it might cost people in my home state closer to 75 cents to charge the car, while people in New York might have to pay closer to $2.50 a charge, nevertheless they have stricken the all important Kilowatt Hour amount per charge from their site! - At the current price of gas in America, it currently is very close to being $2.50 a gallon WHERE I LIVE AT, so those numbers are lousy! Is Chevy trying to say the car can travel 40 miles for the price of a gallon of gas, but on electricity instead?? I get over 45MPG on my all gas Cobalt XFE! - Maybe that's why GM had those calculations removed from their home page for the Volt- It USED to be listed. Of course if gasoline goes up faster than the cost of electricity they may be on to something. I'll be darn if I can figure out their math. I support them, but they sure do make it hard for me too!

[Christ]

Originally Posted by Jammer

THEY CHANGED THEIR WEBSITE!!

They used to list the estimated cost AND how many KWH it took to charge the car for aprox. 8 hours a full charge. The way the site reads they have stricken that right from the home page for The Volt! ARGH!!!!!!!! As I recall it was a cost of 75 cents to $2.50 (USD) - At the current price of gas in America, it currently is very close to being $2.50 a gallon WHERE I LIVE AT, so those numbers are lousy! Is Chevy trying to say the car can travel 40 miles for the price of a gallon of gas, but on electricity instead?? I get over 45MPG on my all gas Cobalt XFE! - Maybe that's why GM had those calculations removed from their home page for the Volt- It USED to be listed. Of course if gasoline goes up faster than the cost of electricity they may be on to something. I'll be darn if I can figure out their math. I support them, but they sure do make it hard for me too!

I don't have actual prices, but I do know that in some places, electricity costs are very high.

There are also "designer options" for electricity, where you pay a higher price for it, because "it's from a renewable source"... not that you could actually be getting 100% of your electricity from a renewable source without having been hooked to a separate grid, unless your local company has renewable power only.

An old acquaintance of mine got duped into this... he's looking into litigation, now.

[Jammer]

Sorry Christ we were posting at the same time- I was editing mine. My Bad!

[Christ]

It's cool, I was just explaining another POV on it.

BTW - I'm not sure what, if any effect it will have on fuel prices, but de-regulation is a prominent thought in the minds of many. I wonder if it will cause fuel prices to go up, down, or remain indifferent?

[Jammer]

Originally Posted by srortega

They make that claim without telling you how much electricity they used to charge the car overnight. The car also is supposed to have a 40 mile electric range, so if the test is done within that 40 miles the true MPG of the 1.4litre gas generator is not going to be represented. What they need is to show the miles per kWh as well as the kWh of the generator. That would give us a more acurate representation of the cost to opperate this car.

I had overlooked your idea of listing the KWH of the gasoline generator! Yes, that sure would help us figure up the math if we had all of that information. I don't think I have read anywhere about how much electricity the gasoline engine charges the battery at, not yet anyway.

Also, I would like to know THE SIZE OF THE CAR! Some say it's a full size sedan, some say it will be based on parts from The Cruise in the Lordstown Ohio Plant known now for making The Cobalt and other SUB-COMPACTS in the past.