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Muso
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 Posted: Fri Mar 02, 2012 11:55 pm Post subject: Chevy Dolt - GM laying off 1300 |
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GM laying off 1300 due to low Volt sales
| Quote: | General Motors Co. announced the temporary suspension of Chevrolet Volt production and the layoffs of 1300 employees, as the company is cutting Volt manufacturing to meet lower-than-expected demand for the electric cars.
"Even with sales up in February over January, we are still seeking to align our production with demand," GM spokesman Chris Lee said. The car company had hoped to sell 45,000 Chevy Volts in America this year, according to the Detrot News, but has only sold about 1,626 over the first two months of 2012.
"GM blamed the lack of sales in January on “exaggerated” media reports and the federal government's investigation into Volt batteries catching fire, which officially began in November and ended Jan. 21," the Ann Arbor (Mich.) News reported.
The laid-off employees will be rehired April 23rd, when GM resumes production of the Volt. |
Oh yeah, it's the media's fault 
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notageek
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| Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2012 3:57 am Post subject: |
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I was hoping, pjp would buy at-least 4 or 5 of these already.
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Muso
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| Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2012 4:01 am Post subject: |
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| notageek wrote: | | I was hoping, pjp would buy at-least 4 or 5 of these already. |
The only people buying these are government agencies and GE (cronyism of the worst sort).
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notageek
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| Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2012 4:06 am Post subject: |
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I haven't looked at the car closely (on the Internet) but from what information got to me, it seemed a nice car. Perhaps it's the price?
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Muso
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| Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2012 4:50 am Post subject: |
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| notageek wrote: | | I haven't looked at the car closely (on the Internet) but from what information got to me, it seemed a nice car. Perhaps it's the price? |
It's a piece of shit that will burst into flames weeks after getting hit in traffic.
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notageek
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| Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2012 5:22 am Post subject: |
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Oh, that bad?
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Muso
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| Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2012 5:39 am Post subject: |
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| notageek wrote: | | Oh, that bad? |
The only reason they have any sales whatsoever is because of GE and various local and federal government agencies doing a favor for BO and Government Motors. Just look at the sales, it's not exactly an iPhone. It cannot exist on its own natural market share. If not for the cronyism, it wouldn't have made it this far.
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pjp
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| Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2012 6:04 am Post subject: |
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| notageek wrote: | | I was hoping, pjp would buy at-least 4 or 5 of these already. |
I wish I could afford 4 or 5, then I'd probably buy one. Beats the electric stuff anyone's been able to come up with so far. Though Tesla is getting close (I forget the range of their sedan).
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notageek
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| Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2012 6:05 am Post subject: |
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I was just joking about the fact that, you showed the most enthusiasm for this car, in this forum.
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pjp
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| Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2012 6:16 am Post subject: |
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Ah, OK. I was wondering what that was about.
GM should have stuck much closer to the concept design and made it a Caddy. They could have bumped up the interior and pushed it toward $50k or so. Or keep it the concept Chevy and sold it at "break even." Get the interest, fix the bugs, etc.
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sugar
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| Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2012 7:54 am Post subject: |
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| The Earth wrote: | | notageek wrote: | | Oh, that bad? |
The only reason they have any sales whatsoever is because of GE and various local and federal government agencies doing a favor for BO and Government Motors. Just look at the sales, it's not exactly an iPhone. It cannot exist on its own natural market share. If not for the cronyism, it wouldn't have made it this far. |
and yet the market for the Prius is the largest in the US. It's not full electric, but competing for the same market segments.
If the market exists, and is growing, they're justified in chasing them.
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Muso
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| Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2012 8:18 am Post subject: |
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| sugar wrote: | | The Earth wrote: | | notageek wrote: | | Oh, that bad? |
The only reason they have any sales whatsoever is because of GE and various local and federal government agencies doing a favor for BO and Government Motors. Just look at the sales, it's not exactly an iPhone. It cannot exist on its own natural market share. If not for the cronyism, it wouldn't have made it this far. |
and yet the market for the Prius is the largest in the US. It's not full electric, but competing for the same market segments. |
Toyota makes a fine product. GM makes shit.
| sugar wrote: | | If the market exists, and is growing, they're justified in chasing them. |
There is a Prius market. There is no Dolt market outside of anything connected to the Obama administration.
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sugar
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| Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2012 8:24 am Post subject: |
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| The Earth wrote: | | There is a Prius market. There is no Dolt market outside of anything connected to the Obama administration. |
there must be significant overlap of segments the prius and the volt in the marketplace.
Are you saying that the consumers that would look to buy a Prius are completely different to those that the volt is marketing to?
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genstorm
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| Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2012 3:49 pm Post subject: |
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They probably shouldn't have put a crappy GM engine into it.
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pjp
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| Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2012 4:44 pm Post subject: |
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| The Earth wrote: | Toyota makes a fine product. GM makes shit.
| sugar wrote: | | If the market exists, and is growing, they're justified in chasing them. |
There is a Prius market. There is no Dolt market outside of anything connected to the Obama administration. |
The only dolts are Prius buyers. I test drove one before buying my current car. It seemed like a $13k car priced at $26k. I personally won't likely ever spend $40k on a car, so the Volt is unfortunately out of my reach.
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genstorm
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| Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2012 4:51 pm Post subject: |
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I thought Americans are used to crappy plastics in their interiors?
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Muso
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| Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2012 5:53 pm Post subject: |
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| genstorm wrote: | | I thought Americans are used to crappy plastics in their interiors? |
Japanese cars are the most common in the USA. And Japanese interiors > European interiors.
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genstorm
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| Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2012 6:10 pm Post subject: |
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Depends.  (Most of) German interiors (at least in Europe) > (Most of) Japanese > French interiors
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pjp
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| Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2012 6:42 pm Post subject: |
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You'd think it'd be easier to use a single interior.
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sugar
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| Posted: Wed Apr 04, 2012 11:58 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: | Chevy Volt To Resume Production One Week Early Following Record Sales
On the heels of the news that the Chevy Volt had a record month, selling 2,289 units in March, the Detroit-Hamtramck plant where the car is made will be resuming production of the car one week early, reducing a five-week shutdown to just four weeks, the United Auto Workers union said Tuesday. The shutdown had been put in place to re-align supply with demand. Volt workers have also begun to lash out at Republican presidential candidates' criticisms of the car: 'They're attacking our car to get at the President...But our car is going to change the way America does business. It's a breath of fresh air. |
http://politics.slashdot.org/story/12/04/04/2026258/chevy-volt-to-resume-production-one-week-early-following-record-sales
| Quote: | March sees record-high Chevy Volt sales with 2,289; Nissan Leaf holds the course with 579
The plug-in vehicle sales situation is heating up, and Chevrolet is looking especially good now that its plug-in hybrid Volt has had it best sales month ever. Looks like Bob Lutz knew what he was talking about.
Chevy sold 2,289 Volts in March, up from 1,023 last month and 608 in March 2011. This beats the previous high-sales mark by almost 800 units. In December 2011, Chevy sold 1,529 Volts. |
http://green.autoblog.com/2012/04/03/march-record-high-chevy-volt-sales-nissan-leaf/
even better
| Quote: | Bob Lutz gives up trying to convince the right they're wrong about the Chevy Volt
Bob Lutz has learned something: you can't teach right-wing pundits the truth.
Yes, in his ongoing series of Chevrolet Volt defense columns for Forbes (see previous entries here and here), the former GM vice chairman has finally decided to throw in the towel. The short version of his awakening goes like this: "I am, sadly, coming to the conclusion that all the icons of conservatism are (shock, horror!) deliberately not telling the truth!"
You don't say.
Yes, Lutz who says he believes that "conservatism IS fundamental truth," calls Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly "chief disseminators of misinformation" for their apparently willful disregard for reality when it comes to the way they talk about the Volt. He has attacked right-wing pundits before, but he's done with trying to reason with them. After having both Charles Krauthammer and Mike Huckabee attack the Volt recently, he's added them to the pile of pundits that he no longer takes seriously. "After all," he writes, "how do I know they're telling the truth when the subject is one I'm not as familiar with as the Volt?"
Therefore, Lutz's latest column is called "I Give Up On Correcting The Wrong-Headed Right Over The Volt." It's not like we didn't have a hint this was coming. In his last article, you could tell he was getting frustrated at the "loony right." Read this to see what we mean. |
http://green.autoblog.com/2012/03/20/bob-lutz-gives-up-trying-to-convince-the-right-theyre-wrong-abo/
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pjp
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| Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2012 12:27 am Post subject: |
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Good for the Volt.
I don't hear anyone criticizing the Leaf or anything else on its merits, so I think Lutz is a putz.
The biggest problem for me with the Volt (assuming no reliability / quality issues) is the design. They completely and totally dropped the ball, almost as if they wanted it to fail.
Take a look at the Tesla sedan & new SUV. Not remarkable, but "worth" the price (no accounting for taste). Also Fisker. The Nina is rumored to be in the $40k range. And even if it comes close to that, it doesn't look like a turd.
But that's not even the worst part. What makes the turd so bad is that they tried. Yeah, nobody who pays attention thinks an actual concept car will make it, if for no other reason than the impracticality of some design decisions. But they could easily have come closer to concept than turd.
Seems a lot like the EV-1 Conspiracy Theorists insisting that GM wanted that one to fail.
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sugar
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| Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2012 12:37 am Post subject: |
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| pjp wrote: | Good for the Volt.
I don't hear anyone criticizing the Leaf or anything else on its merits, so I think Lutz is a putz.
The biggest problem for me with the Volt (assuming no reliability / quality issues) is the design. They completely and totally dropped the ball, almost as if they wanted it to fail.
Take a look at the Tesla sedan & new SUV. Not remarkable, but "worth" the price (no accounting for taste). Also Fisker. The Nina is rumored to be in the $40k range. And even if it comes close to that, it doesn't look like a turd.
But that's not even the worst part. What makes the turd so bad is that they tried. Yeah, nobody who pays attention thinks an actual concept car will make it, if for no other reason than the impracticality of some design decisions. But they could easily have come closer to concept than turd.
Seems a lot like the EV-1 Conspiracy Theorists insisting that GM wanted that one to fail. |
So how do I charge an EV? Can I just plug it into an existing main outlet and hang an extension cable out the window to the car or something?
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richk449
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| Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2012 12:45 am Post subject: |
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| sugar wrote: | | So how do I charge an EV? Can I just plug it into an existing main outlet and hang an extension cable out the window to the car or something? |
The guy a couple of blocks away has no garage or driveway, so he runs an extension cord out of his house, into a tree, over the car, and into the receptacle on the car, leaving the "charging handle" sticking out about 8 inches into the road.
I can't figure out what is going to happen first - electrocution during a rainstorm, or someone snapping off the charging handle as they drive by too close. |
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sugar
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| Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2012 12:52 am Post subject: |
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| richk449 wrote: | | sugar wrote: | | So how do I charge an EV? Can I just plug it into an existing main outlet and hang an extension cable out the window to the car or something? |
The guy a couple of blocks away has no garage or driveway, so he runs an extension cord out of his house, into a tree, over the car, and into the receptacle on the car, leaving the "charging handle" sticking out about 8 inches into the road.
I can't figure out what is going to happen first - electrocution during a rainstorm, or someone snapping off the charging handle as they drive by too close. |
lolz 
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pjp
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| Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2012 12:55 am Post subject: |
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| sugar wrote: | | So how do I charge an EV? Can I just plug it into an existing main outlet and hang an extension cable out the window to the car or something? |
THAT is the exact reason I thought the concept behind the Volt was far better than any other hybrid option out there. On top of that, it would appear that the general design would allow for fewer changes to the platform as new technology comes around. More efficient batteries, fuel-cell, etc. And fewer platform changes are better for manufacturing. Also seems strange no other mfg is trying this type of vehicle. Pure EV are a novelty / niche item and will be for a long time.
But that doesn't have anything to do with the bad styling (seems to be mostly accepted as bad, there may be a few exceptions).
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