Not sure how new this info is, but Bob has said Link to article.
http://gm-volt.com/2008/06/18/lutz-4...-money-for-gm/

What are your thoughts on the pricing? fair? too much? think it may hurt GM if what Bob says is true?

 

I wonder if that is no profit when considering paying for their R&D costs, which are no doubt massive right now, or if that's just taking into consideration everything but R&D.

 

Fair? Not enough info to know that. It would be a fair price if it's quality/features are inline with other $40,000 cars.

 

I look at it in terms of how much you spend in fuel costs for a Volt compared to a....I'll use a Malibu.

Say you buy a Malibu for $25,000. And you use 7,500 dollars worth of fuel over a 5-year span (1500 a year in fuel). Add that 7500; you spend 31,500 for 5 years of ownership.

Now buy a Volt for 40k, and say you only spend 300 dollars in fuel every year for 5 years (less if you don't drive over 40 miles a day). That's a savings of 6000 over 5 years; so you'd spend the Volt's cost of owership would be about $34,000.

$2500 difference is not a big deal. Plus this will diminish to nothing, and the Volt will actually start paying for itself in the 6th year of ownership. Also consider that, like an ipod or a cell phone, this is brand new technology -- so it's going to be a on the expensive side at first. AND consider that you're using a fraction of the amount of oil/gas a normal car uses....

A $40,000 pricetag is unfortunate because at face value, it seems like it's a lot more expensive than a regular car. But I think the car is priced VERY fairly, and I'd buy one if I wasn't getting a Camaro .

 

I guess $40,000 from GM is better than $30,000 from GM with a $10,000 dealer markup. Good thing they are not being sold as Pontiac's.

You mean like the ability to drive only on electric and never buy gasoline again? The only other car close to having this is what comes from Tesla and they only have the $100,000 car and a $60,000-$75,000 car coming out in late 2010.

 

Lets not forget depreciation. 2008 base Ford Escape Hybrids are already showing zero depreciation after 20,000mi. If gas is $5+ in 2010 Volt will be the same way.

 

The Volt won't do that either. Its not an electric car like the Tesla, but a different type of hybrid. If you only drive 40 miles a day, you could consider it an electric car.

 

Nope. If it's going to be a success people will need to see it as a car that gives them all the creature comferts they are used to for the price. Otherwise it won't sell.

 

You are doing the math wrong. You are charging 7500 to the Malibu's cost of ownership but then for some reason crediting the difference to the Volt's cost. If you're saying the Malibu is 25k+7.5k= 32.5k... then the Volt would be 40k + 1.5k = 41.5k. Making the difference between the two cars based on your method of thinking, 9k instead of 2.5k.

Granted as was already mentioned you have to also consider resale value... almost without a doubt unless the Volt develops a reputation as a maintenance nightmare or something, it will be worth quite a bit more than the Malibu after 5 years.

The Volt very well might also be a nicer and/or more fun to drive car. The novelty value at the very least must be worth something!

So I still agree with your conclusion... despite the Volt costing $15k more than a Malibu up front, you could still easily make a case for its actual cost and value.

 

Depends how much you drive.

If you drive ~40 miles per day, 7 days a week...that's over 14k miles per year.

@ $5/gallon (gas will likely cost this much by the time Volt is out, maybe more)...your malibu (assuming a 27mpg average...I didn't look up actual numbers) will run you $2,700/year in gas.

The volt will run you close to zero (electric will cost you something, probably on the order of $20-40/month). So let's say $480/year.

Over 5 years that's $5,400 in gas for malibu, $2,400 in electricity (or maybe some gasoline too) for the volt.

Still doesn't make sense, especially not for $40k. However, the price of the car will go down as demand increases and batteries become more common place (wel, i hope it will). For $25k it would be well worht it...particularly if gasoline were say $8/gallon.


EDIT: If I was wealthy I'd buy a volt even if it didn't make sense, just so I could avoid using gas. I think there will be peopel who buy it just like people bought the Prius...whether it makes economic sense or not. To them it's like giving the finger to big oil, or if nothing else just to be the first guy on the block with one.

 

ED&T costs, along with tooling, are going to be heavily dependant on volume - and if you burden the first few units with those costs (despite the fact that the knowledge can be re-used on future programs), you can start making the business case look very, very ugly.

Separating out those costs, the Volt has two major problems ahead of it - the cost of the pack (at any volume), and the cost of components at such a low starting volume.

 

Math, math, math...

If annually the cost of gas for the Malibu is $2700, then the cost over 5 years is $13,500. The cost of electricity for the Volt is $2400. So in 5 years time, you spend $11,100 on gas in the Malibu that you wouldn't have spent on the Volt.

 

Oh crap, the "2" key is right under the "5" on the keypad...i multipled by 2 instead of 5 for the malibu.
Good catch. I set out to prove the Volt could be economical @ $5/gal...then halfway through my post I went "well crap, this still doesn't make sense"

 

This is where things get interesting. If you take an assumed cost of $1300/kWh for an automotive lithium-ion pack, then the Volt will carry about $20,000 just in its pack. Assume that it lasts for 10 years and 100,000 miles (40 miles per day, 250 days per year). Ignoring electricity costs for recharging the Volt, it'll take 10 years to pay for the Volt's pack.

 

Are you asking seriously, or are you being sarcastic?

In case you're serious...anything that uses electricity will increase your electric bill - you are getting charged on what you use which is determined based on your meter reading.