I have no issues with that.

 

I am pretty sure that the Volt was leasing for $350 a month when released.

 

While your logic is sound, you forget that the volt isn't a $40,000 economy car. You don't spend $40,000 on a car to save money. I'm guessing people aren't throwing down $80,000 on Tesla Model S's to save money either.

Battery warranty is 8 years, 100,000 miles. Better then any engine warranty GM offers.

I think I remember it starting there too (I think the starting lease price was almost the same as the Nissan Leaf, something like $349/month). Here's a new lease for $279 per month:

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/othe...ext-427-a.html

 

Hello. I did not "forget" anything. I was simply responding to the comment about why GM doesn't talk about how much people would save in gas in their commercials. I can quote it exactly, if it would help.

Bob

 

Better? Most GM drivetrain warranties are 5 years, 100,000 miles. The 8 year battery warranty would mean driving only 12,500 miles annually. The last time I checked, the national average is 15,000 miles a year. Many of us drive more than that. The standard GM drivetrain warranty allows for up to 20,000 miles a year.

Granted, you're more than likely to drive an EV less miles annually than a traditional fuel based vehicle; however what's the point of an extended range EV with a limited, er... range?

Better? Longer?

 

Hah! I completely missed your post right before it. I think it would have helped if you quoted it exactly!


I understand what you're saying, but I completely disagree. Warranties don't limit the number of miles per year. All they limit is total miles and total time. You can drive just as many miles with the volt under warranty as you can any other GM vehicle (so that's equal to any other GM warranty). You can also potentially drive MORE time on it than you can any other vehicle (so that's better).

The way I look at it is: equal + better = better

As you posted above, the 'average' is around 15,000 miles per year. So on average people are only using 75,000 miles before their warranty expires. The Volt is giving you close to 2 additional years of warranty at the 'average' rate!

I don't know why anyone would pick a 5 year 100,000 mile warranty over an 8 year 100,000 mile warranty if all other things were equal.

 

True, but the 8 year is really a moot point. It could be 20yr/100k. I think it's just a number to make people feel better. I would guess your average American puts 100k on a vehicle in 5 years.

For us it's more like 3-4 years when we hit the 100k mark.

 

I believe 20k / year is rather high.

I think the average is somewhere around 15k / year.

 

Per the Federal Highway Administration, and as of April of last year, the average annual mileage in the US is 13,476.

Source

 

Not that I've ever been considered average... but when I bought my 1995 Z/28 new, I put 30k miles on it within the first 18 months. It currently has just under 64k miles on the clock. (Yes, that's not a typo.)

 

My 2000 Mustang GT has 8,xxx on the odo.

 

My C/E has 1,650 miles on it and the Chally has 104.

I win!

 

Actually, that can happen pretty easily without messing with the numbers. A lot of people have been given early-retirement packages, and as such they move to retired status so the work force decreases in size. Some cheaper (less experienced) person moves into the slot. Downside is how many that take the early retirement option go home and get bored and start "looking for work" but not actively and are still retired - which means the numbers don't match reality because of how we measure the numbers in the first place.
Talk to the people that bought Tesla Roadsters that are less than a year old and have a bricked battery that costs $40,000-$50,000 to replace. Now THAT'S nuts! I can maybe get behind some money to GM for Volt subsidies. But giving Elon Musk and his company 380 million when they don't even build any cars anymore is absurd. The government should have stepped in and nailed them to the wall when they decided to just stop making Roadsters. At least they were selling. Then they took deposits on The Sedan, but they aren't making it. Now they're taking deposits on an SUV, and they aren't making that either.
Actually, that's exactly why the Volt warranty is what it is and the range is what it is as well. The leaf also follows into a similar segment, believe it or not.

The idea is that someone who wants to run a car on electric (the real target consumer) lives in a more urban environment, is decently affluent, and doesn't have a lot of driving to do in a day. They drive much less than the national average. They also likely own another car to take on long trips that is larger (like a minivan or SUV) so range isn't an issue.

One Volt owner I talked to had a bumper sticker "100% COAL POWERED!" on his Volt (he's an industrial engineering manager). He uses it to pretty much commute to work and back and then run errands - less than 100 miles on the car a week. So for him at 8 years he's still well under 50k.

Another one I talked to (seriously, not kidding) had less than a 4 mile commute to work. He'd managed to hyper-mile a few times and actually only charge the car on weekends. It was a game to him to see how long he could go without putting gas in it.

The most recent one I talked to did put a good amount of miles on it, but nowhere near hitting the 100k after 8 years. He did say he was glad he bought it and knew going into it that it was a financially silly move and that if he had to do it again he probably wouldn't - but he did like the car.
It's not even that we don't have enough power going into the grid - the grid itself is falling apart. There are high voltage transmission lines where the structure of the supports is rusting through and they're just going to up and collapse one day and that's going to take out chunks of the grid. Then the system will collapse like it did in Ohio a few years ago (and in the process that took out power to the entire Northeast USA for a week). That's going to become commonplace unless we start spending big billions on infrastructure. Spending on that scale is also not exactly a good prospect either.

Ugh.

Just what we need, right? Our roads stink. Our bridges are falling apart. Our power lines, water lines, sewage systems, telecommunications networks and even our silly cell phone networks are all pretty much at capacity and/or falling apart. All the while our economy is in the tank and we're hemorrhaging money and jobs every day. At least we're not Greece!

 

What is the point of owning them if you never enjoy driving them?

 

Glad I got a whole house generator! As long as the natural gas guy makes it by, I got power.