Chevy Volt Loses $49k/Car?

[LongBlade]

A new report claims that Chevy is losing almost $50,000 for every car they sell.

The truth appears to be dependent on whether Chevy will sell enough cars to cover its research costs. Currently they *are* losing $49k per car. But they expect over the lifetime of sales they'll recoup those losses. Assuming they sell what they think they'll sell. Which might be a big "if".

GM denied the estimate, calling it "grossly wrong, in part because the reporters allocated product development costs across the number of Volts sold instead of allocating across the lifetime volume of the program."

But Sandy Munro told FoxNews.com that he stands behind the number, though he added that it was calculated based on industry standards without any specific inside information about the Volt program.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2012/09/10/gm-denys-report-it-is-losing-4g-on-each-volt-sold-while-admitting-program-is

[Bison]

Well I guess that's no worse than the 1,000,000 auto worker jobs that Biden claimed the bailout saved.  Unless you realize there are only 700,000 total auto worker jobs in America.

[LongBlade]

Well I guess that's no worse than the 1,000,000 auto worker jobs that Biden claimed the bailout saved.  Unless you realize there are only 700,000 total auto worker jobs in America.

Heh.

I heard he challenged folks to fact check his speech and they did. The results weren't pretty.

[Steelgrave]

Just wait until GM lurches towards bankruptcy for a second time (it's predicted). Are we gonna bail out the union company a second time? If Obama is President and the Dems hold the Senate, I wouldn't bet against it.

[OJsDad]

Beginning of the year, GE said all of us with company vehicles were going to be switched to Volts when it came time to replace our vehicles.  Two weeks ago, I got a call saying I had a choice between a Volt and a Ford Escape.  I hope GM wasn't counting on too many sales from GE. 

[Steelgrave]

I've done Harris Polls Online for many years now, anywhere from as few as one to as many as three per week. Most of the polls are consumer related in some aspect and take from ten to twenty minutes to complete. I did one maybe a month ago on automotive purchases. In rating different automakers and discussing your likelihood as a consumer to consider any certain company for your next purchase, GM got creamed. I don't remember how they phrased the question, but if you gave a negative to GM one of the boxes you could check asked you if the government intervention in their behalf was a factor in your not being willing to consider purchasing from GM. I don't know how many people answered that to the affirmative, but I do recall that a WSJ article discussing a potential second GM collapse referenced the question and said that the number was "a concern".

[LongBlade]

Volt sales continue to be dismally low. Supposedly they're thinking they'll sell 10,000 Volts this year.

Compare that to Honda and Toyota mid-sized cars:

First seven months of 2012

Toyota Camry: 243,816
Honda Accord: 183,817

Read more: http://wot.motortrend.com/toyota-camry-vs-honda-accord-charting-the-sales-numbers-since-1983-109685.html

Losing $50,000 on each car you sell is likely to result in bankruptcy in fairly short order.  ::)

[MIGMaster]

GM just doesn't get it. Neither does Chrysler.... they just can't do reliability with conventional cars so I can't see the hybrid thing working out well.