Report: GM Wants to Price the Volt Under $30K
22 May 2008
GM Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner told the Frankfurter Allgemeine that the company wants to bring the Volt to market in 2010 priced at less than $30,000.
“GM has a very clear goal: We want to bring the Volt to market in 2010 at a price of less than 30,000 US dollars,” said GM CEO Rick Wagnoner to the Frnakfurther Allgemeine Zeitung.
The interview suggests the potential of a slightly earlier introduction of the vehicle; GM so far has been targeting November 2010 as the introduction date.
The two remaining challenges, said Wagoner, were the cost of the battery and convincing consumers of the value proposition.
(A hat-tip to Rich!)
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seeing as Maximum Bob has said the unsubsidised cost is closer to (and even north of) $40K, looks like GM will make a loss on each Volt sold. This is not a fatal flaw, it was the same with the Prius, the cost will come down over time, and with a sub-$30K price tag I would expect it to absolutely fly out of the showrooms, given the recent trend in oil prices.
Posted by: eric | 22 May 2008 at 03:10 PM
If GM places public charging locations at each GM dealership, then the infrastructure to support the volt is in place, and public acceptance will be assured. It would help if they adopt a universal common plug that is available to all electric cars.
Posted by: John Taylor | 22 May 2008 at 03:23 PM
why a charging station at all isnt the volt supposed to
run off house current,112
Posted by: kevinb | 22 May 2008 at 03:31 PM
Charging a GM Volt should be as easy as connecting your block heater. Pull out the retractable cord and plug it in the garage 115 VAC wall outlet, or if you're a tall blond, hire your neighbour to do it.
Posted by: Harvey D | 22 May 2008 at 03:38 PM
Presumably charging stations are desirable to achieve ultra-fast charges. A typical 115 VAC line on a 20 amp circuit could maximally provide 2.3KW of power. In one hour charging at 100%, this would offer 2.3KWh of juice for the road, or about 30hp average for 6 minutes! Clearly you'd need to charge for many hours to achieve a 40 mile all-electric range. A purpose-built high-througput charging station could probably get the batteries to 80%+ in about 10 minutes. The last 10-20% usually takes longer because you have to step down the flow to a trickle.
Posted by: Mark | 22 May 2008 at 04:49 PM
I really doubt GM wants to take the risk of charging these batteries in 10 minutes.. the wires would melt and you would void the warranty.. it does have a sustainer engine after all.
10 minute recharges are saved for future pure electrics, the volt does not need it.
Posted by: Herm | 22 May 2008 at 05:56 PM
So far there has been no discussion of fast charge for Volt. But seeing as it will probably be the first ER-V to market, home charging at 220 or 110v should suffice. We plug in our cell phones, iPods and cameras overnight and don't give it a second thought. That should be the Volt overnight charge experience.
What will make it more interesting is a retrievable data set detailing the Volt's performance specs. Onboard display and a bluetooth text message to owner's cell would detail the day's kWh/mileage, SOC, regenerative energy, electric vs liquid fuel cost, hybrid usage totals etc. That's the kind of stuff that early adopters use to evangelize their new electric car. It's great word of mouth and cheaper than TV media buys.
Under $30k will get them to their sales goal of 300k units well before the projected 2014 date. Sounds like we might see pre-release Volts as early as late '09.
Posted by: gr | 22 May 2008 at 07:37 PM
It seems that the recent increase of gas price is having an effect on automakers, lately, Honda announced 3 new hybrids next years, Toyota a new Prius later this year, Wolskwagen restarted the 200MPG project with intend to market it. That's good but they'd better speed up since oil price is getting crazy and their survival is in jeopardy, clearly they are caught by surprise by the pace ta which oil price is increasing, and apparently there is no relief in sight. My best guest is that they need to improve the efficiency by 4% a year to cope with peak oil problem until dividing Mileag by 4 (100MPG) where we can run on renewable..
Posted by: Treehugger | 22 May 2008 at 08:19 PM
Unfortunately the powers behind the oil rise have not anticipated the the firestorm of action to begin drilling domestically. ANWAR is on the table for real now with a very good chance that Congress will give it a special emergency waiver to relieve the near term oil shortage. It ain't right but when the powerful wallow in greed - more than the people suffer. In this case a new movement to drill every possible domestic field will be seen as a "national security" issue. Which means there are no holds barred - literally ANYTHING goes.
And the back channel whisper is if Congress delays an Executive Order authorizing military assistance will be issues. Sounds like marshal law...
Posted by: sulleny | 22 May 2008 at 08:43 PM
As per Dr Weber of the Volt development team, the Volt has a plugin system that "senses" the voltage it's plugged into. So plugin 220V or 120V, it accepts the charge accordingly.
This is going to be great and V 2.0 will be even better.
Posted by: Tagamet | 22 May 2008 at 09:35 PM
When the Volt is launched year end 2010 a gallon of gasoline is very likely about $6. This is implied by Goldman Sachs prediction of oil going to $200 per barrel within 6 to 24 months. $30000 for a car that can do 100 to 130 miles per gallon will be a bargain. It will decrease the energy expense from around $3000 per year (assuming 20 mpg and 10.000 miles per year) to less than $500 per year. And then you get all the excitement about driving a noiseless car with the newest technology (or is that only me?).
They could sell it for more, I am sure, but if they want high volume quickly maybe it is smart to sell it for $30000. Yesterday I found more evidence that indeed $500 per kWh is possible. That would price the Volt’s battery at $8000 leaving $19000 for the rest of the car and $3000 for profit. That sounds possible in volumes >100000.
The new evidence is from a soon to be sold motorcycle (this summer in the US) with a 8.2 kWh battery. The smallest version sells for $8000 which would leave $4000 for the lithium iron battery, $3000 for the cycle and $1000 for profit. See for yourselves http://www.evcusa.com/
Posted by: Henrik | 23 May 2008 at 12:17 AM
Henrik, manufacturing cost only makes up about 50% of MSRP. The rest is marketing, R&D, overhead, transport, warranty, dealer markup and profit. The ratio might tilt a little for Volt if battery makers eat their share of warranty cost. A $30k MSRP Volt imlies manufacturing cost of $15-17k. That's almost impossible with an $8k battery unless the car is an econobox stripper.
I don't know how much the Gen1 battery will cost. It doesn't really matter, we know GM will sell Gen1 at a loss. I think the Gen2 battery will be around 12 kWh/$4200.
Posted by: doggydogworld | 23 May 2008 at 06:28 AM
I thought the problem was refinery capacity shortage, not immediate oil shortage. What the heck is drilling ANWAR gonna get us?
Posted by: NCyder | 23 May 2008 at 06:40 AM
Just to add that GM have been testing their Volt mule recently with the finalised battery packs, and have reported that they are easily meeting the 40-mile EV mode range they'd targeted.
Posted by: clett | 23 May 2008 at 07:50 AM
ANWAR oil comes in at $60.00/bl.
Posted by: | 23 May 2008 at 08:21 AM
Why would any company sell us oil at $60/bbl when they would get $120/bbl on the global market? ANWR will have almost no effect on price once the mythical oil starts trickling across Alaska.
Posted by: tom deplume | 23 May 2008 at 08:52 AM
I must say, high oil prices are exactly what environmentalists should want. We're currently in that 'lag' phase that occurs when markets adjust to an increase in the price of a good. If the Volt debuts with oil prices >$100/barrel.. it is going to be a revolution in the auto industry. Furthermore, you people should read into oil shale. Apparently there is enough in the US to keep us going for years.
Posted by: Bryan | 23 May 2008 at 10:11 AM
Sulleny:
We would have a national emergency and marshal (sic) law to have an executive decree to start drilling for oil in ANWAR that will arrive in the lower 48 in 2013?
Wouldn't it be easier and more effective to invade Venezuela? (as long we're indulging in testosterone-soaked fantasies?)
Posted by: dollared | 23 May 2008 at 10:39 AM
Well, that sounds like a good idea.. Chavez has been mouthing off lately and I think they nationalized some our assets?.. Venezuela is heading for a major disaster, comunism, state controlled industry and socialism just dont work.
Posted by: Herm | 23 May 2008 at 03:59 PM
Why not invade Alaska instead? There's no one mouthing off up there and a shocking lack of suicide bombers!
As unrealistic oil prices put more and more small-medium businesses out of business and cost the Pentagon $$unds allocated for shiny weapons programs, the hew and cry will be national security *not* emergency. Congress attempting to quiet the screaming will pass a fast patchwork of drill, explore and refine packages with the stipulation that recovered oil pricing be "capped." To make it all look handsome they throw the Fed portion of revenues into the green kitty... Sorta like what's happening now:
"(H.R. 6107), introduced by Rep. Bartlett and Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska), would use revenues from the ANWR leases to fund a variety of alternative and renewable energy programs. The bill assumes production will come online in 5 years."
All the result of greed driven (not $$-driven) power brokers trying to get their way not matter what it takes. Remember, whole war efforts have been predicated on far less (Gulf of Tonkin.)
Posted by: Sulleny | 23 May 2008 at 06:16 PM
"Furthermore, you people should read into oil shale. Apparently there is enough in the US to keep us going for years."
Bryan, maybe you should do a little more reading. it's technically difficult to get at, expensive and an environmentally disastrous form of "unconventional oil". if it's not being pumped out of the ground at $130bbl you have to ask what difference will it really make?
Posted by: eric | 24 May 2008 at 04:57 AM
Only one comment I spotted here that really hits home is from "doggydog".
Our government must roll back all of it's senseless regulatory bull and allow the US to begin building refineries first. Are we going to set on stockpiles of crude without having the capability to refine it.
Come on DC, get your heads out of the sand and selling us to foreign blackmailers. Ten years and "no new refineries". What a joke we are to the rest of the world.
Posted by: Bill | 19 September 2008 at 12:21 PM