Solyndra. The Fiat 500. Obamacare. All spectacular product failures from an administration that has staked billions on its expertise in picking the future. Add one more. As Pollowitz points out nearby, the Chevy Volt — one reason that the White House deemed GM’s bailout as essential to America — is #3 on Yahoo! Finance’s list of Worst Product Flops of 2011:
3. Volt
Company: General Motors
GM was originally so excited about the Volt that the company had announced in January it was speeding up its roll-out by six months. But by November the excitement had fizzled out. Larry Nitz, GM’s executive director for vehicle electrification told Reuters, “It’s naive to think that the world is going to switch tomorrow to EVs [electric vehicles].” Indeed, sales for the vehicle have been consistently low. Only 125 models were sold in July 2011. This was after GM spokeswoman Michelle Bunker was quoted as saying that the Volt was “virtually sold out” due to its popularity — a statement later shown to be misguided. Adding insult to injury, Chevy Volts are under investigation for fires involving the cars’ lithium-ion batteries. For concerned Volt owners, GM has offered free loaner cars.
"It’s naive to think that the world is going to switch tomorrow to EVs [electric vehicles].”
Which bears asking the question, "If there is no intention of people switching to EVs, then why in the world would you create an EV?"
It's absurd to say that people will not switch technologies overnight: When a technology is viable, people will switch in a heartbeat. See: Horse-drawn carriages to cars, typewriters to computers, rotary to pulse to dial-tone to dumb cell phone to smart phones. See, even within a product family people will switch if the new product is innovative enough. The only people who will ever want an electric car are ecozealots who think their little car switch will somehow have a meaningful impact on the Earth. In other words, smart GM directors who create products for an ever dwindling customer base of fools.
CAPCHA says "lose face". Yes, each year that GM exists after bankruptcy and puts out carp like Volts it loses face and then some.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseTo deal with the bad publicity regarding the spontaneous combustion issue, just today Chevy has announced a non-recall recall -- i.e., it's asking owners to take their Volts back to the dealers on a voluntary basis. As Huffpo puts it, "Dealers will add steel to a plate that protects the Volt battery, spreading the force of a crash over a larger area, says Mary Barra, GM's product development chief. Tests have shown that the repairs stop penetration into the battery and prevent coolant leaks, GM and federal safety regulators say."
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseYou should be thanking him!
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWhat is really cool is that the Obama administration is pushing electric cars at the same time it is introducing new regulations which force power plants to close.
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