Just not based on mainstream technology?
A good niche solution, but just not for average car buyers?
“When you are looking at purely dollars and cents, it doesn’t really make a lot of sense. The Volt isn’t particularly efficient as an electric vehicle and it’s not particularly good as a gas vehicle either in terms of fuel economy,” said David Champion, the senior director of Consumer Reports auto testing center at a meeting with reporters here. “This is going to be a tough sell to the average consumer.”
However, GM countered that for consumers seeking to significantly reduce their foreign oil dependence, the Chevy Volt resonates.
While I agree with GM that the Volt is a great vehicle to reduce personal foreign oil dependence, almost every battery study over the last year or two has hinted at the same conclusion as Consumer Reports. And as Bob Lutz, essentially the father of the Volt, publicly stated numerous times, the Volt wasn’t designed to become GM’s main powertrain; instead, it was designed for the 5 – 10 percent of consumers willing to pay extra for such a vehicle.
Consequently, there is a market for the Volt. Moreover, Volt R&D could lead to the type of breakthrough that results in making plug-in vehicles a solution for more than just a few percent of car consumers.
Nevertheless, when it comes to addressing US foreign oil dependence, for instance, Volt technology is not the solution today, nor almost certainly, any time soon. While it’s great that GM developed the Volt, more effort should have also been put into conventional hybrid technology, for example, or even something like Ford’s EcoBoost. Ultimately, hyping the Volt for several years as a response to the success of the Toyota Prius was not the smartest move.
Fortunately, GM’s new E-Assist mild hybrid powertrain might help fill in this void, but will this be enough to push GM’s CAFE rating past Toyota?
Inevitably, addressing foreign oil dependence will require far more than over-hyped niche solutions, and while GM and Nissan market their plug-in leadership, both are still laggards when it comes to their overall CAFE rankings. And, today, that counts a lot more than green marketing.