May Car Sales -- 481 Chevy Volts

Even with gas over $4 a gallon and the expectation it will head to $5, almost no one wants a Chevy Volt, the electric Edsel. What a surprise. Consumers find nothing appealing about a $41,000 electric golf cart that goes 40 miles on a single battery charge. Of course it only goes 40 miles on flat terrain. Throw in some hills while traveling on a hot rainy night when you need the wipers, the air conditioner, the lights and you're blasting the stereo, well, then you'll go less than 40 miles on that single charge.

Electric Boogaloo: Nissan Leaf tallies 1,141 May sales to Chevy Volt's 481

Once again, General Motors is burying the monthly sales totals for the Chevy Volt. In a press release headlined "May U.S. Retail Sales Rise 9 Percent on Demand for Fuel-Efficient Vehicles," the Volt's sales numbers are not disclosed. Instead, the total – 481 – is in the detailed PDF of the Chevrolet brand sales totals and shows the car is suffering from another month-to-month drop; GM sold 493 in April.

Last month, GM told us that drop in Volt sales compared to March's 608 units was due, in part, to the company sending 300 Volts to dealers to use as demo vehicles. We await word on what the reason for the drop is this time.

On the other hand, Nissan is proudly proclaiming that it sold 1,142 units of the Nissan Leaf in May, a huge increase over the 573 sold in April. Overall, Leaf sales have now totaled 2,167 deliveries this year. For comparison, GM has sold 2,184 Volts in 2011.

If this trend continues, it won't be long before we hear Nissan touting a new tagline for the Leaf: the best-selling plug-in car in America.

So, these numbers give us more fodder for the comment grill. What's going on with GM's all-conquering halo car? Is the price too high? Is it just that the true early adopters are more interested in a pure EV than something with a gas engine? What's your take?

Dead Batteries -- Slow Volts, Leaf barely turns over

Seriously. Is anyone surprised at the widespread lack of interest in these modified golf carts? This is what happens when the government intrudes. Products that no one wants are offered, but no one buys them. The Chevy Volt is tne new Edsel, but this time the failure is on the government, not the marketing department.

Can we forget about these useless cars now? Can Detroit get back to building cars people really want? If the government butted out, and gave up its obsession with gas mileage, the companies would have no trouble making cars people will buy, rather than talk about.

GM sells just 281 Chevy Volts in February, Nissan only moves 67 Leafs

by Sebastian Blanco

Peruse Chevrolet's February sales release, and you'll notice one number that's blatantly missing: the number of Chevy Volts sold. The number – a very modest 281 – is available in the company's detailed data (PDF), but it certainly isn't something that GM wants to highlight, apparently. Keeping the number quiet is a bit understandable, since it's lower than the 321 that Chevy sold in January.

Nissan doesn't have anything to brag about here, either (and it didn't avoiding any mention of the Leaf sales in its press release). Why? Well, back in January, the company sold 87 Leafs. In February? Just 67. Where does that leave us? Well, here's the big scorecard for all sales of these vehicles thus far:

Volt: 928
Leaf: 173

Ouch. The big questions, of course, revolve around one word: "Why?" Is ramping up production and deliveries still a problem? Is demand weak? Are unscrupulous dealers to blame? When will sales start to climb? And what are these numbers doing to plug-in vehicle work at other automakers? We don't know all the answers, but for more on February auto sales, click here.

Chevy Volt -- The New Edsel? The New Dead Cell

Despite the early statements from Chevy stating the Volt was powered by electricity and had a gasoline engine on-board to run a generator, the automotive world has learned the truth. The gasoline engine in the Volt IS conntected to the drive train and it WILL provide direct power to the wheels. Thus, the Volt is a hybrid, of sorts.

No matter what it is, there's no doubt it's too expensive. A few people will buy them and stick them in garages and wait for them to become collector's items. Like the DeLorean. They'll become valuable because so few will sell to people who actually want to drive them. Unfortunately for Chevy, GM and the Obama administration, the failure of this car might presage the coming of GM's Chapter 22, a second bankruptcy.

Volt Fraud At Government Motors

10/19/2010 06:55 PM

Green Technology: Government Motors' all-electric car isn't all-electric and doesn't get near the touted hundreds of miles per gallon. Like "shovel-ready" jobs, maybe there's no such thing as "plug-ready" cars either.

The Chevy Volt, hailed by the Obama administration as the electric savior of the auto industry and the planet, makes its debut in showrooms next month, but it's already being rolled out for test drives by journalists. It appears we're all being taken for a ride.

When President Obama visited a GM plant in Hamtramck near Detroit a few months ago to drive a Chevy Volt 10 feet off an assembly line, we called the car an "electric Edsel." Now that it's about to hit the road, nothing revealed has changed our mind.

Advertised as an all-electric car that could drive 50 miles on its lithium battery, GM addressed concerns about where you plug the thing in en route to grandma's house by adding a small gasoline engine to help maintain the charge on the battery as it starts to run down. It was still an electric car, we were told, and not a hybrid on steroids.

That's not quite true. The gasoline engine has been found to be more than a range-extender for the battery. Volt engineers are now admitting that when the vehicle's lithium-ion battery pack runs down and at speeds near or above 70 mph, the Volt's gasoline engine will directly drive the front wheels along with the electric motors. That's not charging the battery — that's driving the car.

So it's not an all-electric car, but rather a pricey $41,000 hybrid that requires a taxpayer-funded $7,500 subsidy to get car shoppers to look at it. But gee, even despite the false advertising about the powertrain, isn't a car that gets 230 miles per gallon of gas worth it?

We heard GM's then-CEO Fritz Henderson claim the Volt would get 230 miles per gallon in city conditions. Popular Mechanics found the Volt to get about 37.5 mpg in city driving, and Motor Trend reports: "Without any plugging in, (a weeklong trip to Grandma's house) should return fuel economy in the high 30s to low 40s."

Car and Driver reported that "getting on the nearest highway and commuting with the 80-mph flow of traffic — basically the worst-case scenario — yielded 26 miles; a fairly spirited backroad loop netted 31; and a carefully modulated cruise below 60 mph pushed the figure into the upper 30s."

Dead Volt -- Electric Edsel

Government Motors a.k.a. GM says it will introduce the Chevy Volt in November. Pardon us if we do not hold our breath. The company plans to build 10,000 the first year, which may well be the last year. Yeah, sure, the first 10,000 will sell. They'll sell because speculators want to buy them and store them in garages till the middle of the century, then sell them to collectors.

How will things go? Straight to the Automobile Graveyard. A car that goes 40 miles and then stops? Oh yeah, it has an on-board generator that can recharge the battery while you wait, if you don't mind waiting a couple of hours. Or, it seems you can run the generator while you're driving, which is similar to actually powering the car with the gasoline engine that is running the generator.

And sell it for $41,000. Can't miss. It's a sure thing. A big winner.


GM sets $41,000 price for electric Chevy Volt

Tue Jul 27, 2010

* GM to offer $350/month lease in select markets

* Volt priced slightly higher than GM had telegraphed

* Net price will be closer to $33,500 after tax credit (Adds details on presidential visit, IPO, Tesla)

DETROIT, July 27 (Reuters) - General Motors on Tuesday set a price of $41,000 for its electric Chevrolet Volt -- $8,000 more than its nearest competitor, the Nissan Leaf.

GM GM.UL said on Tuesday it has begun taking orders for the Volt and would offer a $350 per month lease option for the much-anticipated vehicle as it launches in a handful of U.S. markets starting with California.

The biggest question surrounding the Volt has been its price and profitability given the cost of the lithium-ion battery pack supplied by Korea's LG Chem (051910.KS) and the hundreds of millions of dollars that GM devoted to the project over the past four years.

"Every day we've been asked a single question: How much will it cost?" said GM marketing chief Joel Ewanick on a conference call to announce the pricing.

GM executives, including former Vice Chairman Bob Lutz, had previously indicated the Volt would be priced near $40,000.

By setting a higher price and restricting Volt production, the automaker -- now majority-owned by the U.S. government -- has taken steps to limit its losses on the plug-in vehicle.

The long-awaited announcement on pricing for the Volt comes three days before President Barack Obama is scheduled to visit the Detroit-are plant where the vehicle will be built.

GM is expected to file for an initial public offering as soon as August that would allow the government to reduce its 61-percent stake in the automaker.

GM launched the Volt development project four years ago, in part to shake an association with gas-guzzling trucks and to show it could compete with the likes of Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) (TM.N) on hybrid technology.

With a price of $41,000, the Volt will cost as much as some luxury vehicles. The top-selling Cadillac CTS has a price starting at $35,165.

"You have to expect you're going to pay a premium for this kind of technology," said Erich Merkle, an auto analyst and consultant at Autoconomy.com.

But the $350 lease payment on the Volt also makes it competitive with the upcoming Leaf, which has a lease offer of $349 per month.

U.S. taxpayers who buy a Volt will qualify for a federal tax credit of $7,500. Some states, such as California, are offering additional tax incentives.

GM: BUY A VOLT, BUY A "REAL CAR"

Ewanick said GM marketing would portray the Volt "as a real car," attempting to draw a sharp distinction from pure electric vehicles like the Leaf, which lack a backup source of power once the battery is spent. "People don't want to be stranded on the way home from work," he said.

The Volt is designed to be recharged overnight for about 40 miles of electric driving, depending on driving conditions. The car will also have a small gas engine expected to give the vehicle a total range of about 340 miles.

Nissan Motor Co's (7201.T) battery-powered Leaf claims a driving range of 100 miles (161 kilometers). It has a U.S. retail price of $32,780.

Tesla Motors (TSLA.O), a Silicon Valley start-up that went public in June, has the only highway-ready electric car now on U.S. roads with the $109,000 Roadster.

About 600 Chevy dealers in California, Michigan, Washington, D.C., Texas and New York will sell the initial limited production run. GM expects to produce 10,000 Volts for the 2011 model year and about 30,000 for 2012.

Jesse Toprak, an analyst at industry-tracking Web site TrueCar, said the Volt will sell out, leaving GM with the challenge of managing a waiting list.

In the meantime, he said, the Volt gives GM the chance to win over better-educated and wealthier car shoppers in markets like California who would never have considered a Chevy.

"The Volt is a halo car for GM, and it's real importance is in bringing people into showrooms," he said.

Ewanick said it was uncertain how quickly GM could bring down the price of the Volt in future model years, saying that depends on still-uncertain reductions in battery costs.

"There's a lot of technology that has to happen for us to lower prices," he said.

Electric Dream Cars

Tesla Motors received a loan from the government of about $450 million. Based on the number of cars Tesla has sold, the loan equals about $450,000 per car. Meanwhile, the company is unlikely to become profitable anytime soon. Thus, there is no obvious reason for investors to buy this stock in the IPO.

The coming IPO of the new GM will put more pressure on Tesla. GM plans to introduce its Chevy Volt soon. Though the Volt and the Tesla are not head-to-head competitors, they are both electric vehicles with limited range and lengthy battery recharge periods.

Considering there are already some popular hybrids building market share and new electric vehicles arriving in showrooms, there is a high probability of several failures in this segment of the auto industry. The Tesla seems like a reincarnation of the DeLorean or perhaps the earlier Avanti. Both iconic. Both gone.

Tesla Motors: IPO Fueled By Glamour

Tesla Motors Inc. is a company high on glamour. The automaker, which Tuesday scheduled its initial public offering for June 29, makes "green" sports cars that run on electric power. They certainly draw the eye: Walking down Fifth Avenue last summer I met a crowd in suits cooing over one like schoolboys. The cars are not cheap: They start at more than $100,000 each.

Meanwhile company founder and chief executive Elon Musk, age 38, has been in and out of the news. He founded PayPal before selling it to eBay in 2002. He also runs rocket company Space Exploration Technologies and is chairman of solar power business SolarCity. He's engaged to British actress Talulah Riley. Director Jon Favreau recently told Time magazine Elon Musk was among the inspirations for the high-tech entrepreneur played by Robert Downey Jr. in those mindless Iron Man movies.

But as investors have learned the hard way over the years, glamour and excitement are not the same as a sound investment. Indeed the reverse is more often the case.

So should you strap yourself into this zippy little investment vehicle, or stay on the sidewalk?

Let's pop the hood.

The company Tuesday put its likely offer price at $14 to $16 a share. At the $15 mid-point,Tesla would be valued at $1.4 billion. That's quite a price for a company that has only existed for a few years and has never turned a penny of profit.

When the company awarded millions of stock options to Mr. Musk and other insiders as recently as December, it thought the fair price for those was just $6.63. As recently as March, when it awarded yet more options, the fair price was $9.96. Now it's $15. Who said we're in a bear market?

Sales last quarter, at $21 million, showed no gain over the first quarter of 2009–the depths of the financial crisis. Meanwhile operating expenses doubled to $30 million.

So far the company has accumulated $290 million in total losses, on $148 million in sales. It expects net losses at least until 2012.

To date, the company says, customers have driven Roadsters for an aggregate of about 4 million miles. But it also admits there are 1,063 of them on the road. That works out at about 3,800 miles per car. Admittedly most were sold just last year. But this still does not suggest active use.

Anyone betting on Tesla stock is gambling on the success of the forthcoming Model S. But Tesla itself warns that car "is at an early stage of development" and will not be in production until 2012. It adds that it has yet to finalize the design, or complete the engineering, manufacturing or component supply processes for the new car.

And they will not be cheap. The current Roadsters cost over $100,000. Tesla says the Model S, aimed at the "broader market," will cost about $50,000 –even after a $7,500 tax credit.

Even if electric cars take off, Tesla admits it is going to face tough competition. Daimler, Lexus, Audi, Renault, Mitsubishi, Volkswagen, Subaru, Nissan and Ford are all developing electric cars of their own. The company is trying to compete by selling cars online and through its own stores: So far there are only 12.

At $15 a share, the company will raise up to $160 million in the IPO. Toyota will invest another $50 million while Tesla is spending $42 million buying a factory from a Toyota joint venture. Meanwhile insiders are cashing out about $33 million, including $21 million for Mr. Musk. That will still leave him with a stake of about $400 million.

As with most speculative stocks, with Tesla Motors you're taking a gamble. So long as you accept that's what you're doing, have fun.