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Round and round we go... where we stop, nobody knows! That sounds like an apt description of the merry-go-round that is the Chevrolet Volt, especially when pricing and delivery date are concerned. Perhaps what we are witnessing in this case is the first truly transparent product launch in history. Do major shifts like this happen with all vehicles, or is the new technology needed to make the Volt a reality causing pricing headaches for GM management? Maybe it's all of the above. Whatever the case, GM CEO Jim Wagoner has been quoted on Forbes as suggesting that General Motors will be selling an electric car for less than $30,000 by the year 2010.

Another possible explanation for this pricing confusion could involve the upcoming plug-in Saturn Vue. How can we be sure that Wagoner was referring to the Volt when he cited the pricing and deadline of the electric vehicle? We can't. It's possible that GM could have a plug-in Vue ready for the market in 2010 with an electric-only mode, making it an electric car of sorts. We'll just need to take a wait-and-see approach when it comes to the Volt's, and the Vue's, debut.

[Source: Forbes]

There has long been an interesting paradox in the realm of cars. For some peculiar reason, people who buy really expensive cars are willing to make more compromises to the foibles of the car and cut them more slack. How else to explain grief that owners of Italian exotics withstood for decades in terms of reliability, ergonomics and build quality. Buyers of mainstream cars that often have far fewer problems as a percentage of the number of vehicles built have a fit at every little thing that goes wrong. That same paradox exists today. The Tesla Roadster by virtue of its price and performance falls into entry level of exotic cars. Despite numerous delays in getting the car into production, and obvious compromised in terms of its functionality, most people have been willing to cut the car and the company a lot of slack, myself included. In my case my experience in the auto industry allows me to understand the difficulty of the task Tesla had. I never actually expected them to meet their aggressive timing targets and I've written on numerous occasions about the potential problems they might have. Nonetheless most people believed in the company.

General Motors on the other hand faces an entirely different standard with the Volt. In spite having a much more complex vehicle to develop with a much greater level of functionality and a shorter time frame than Tesla, GM seems to be being held to a higher standard than Tesla. At the slightest hint of time slips or cost increases, so many people jump on GM thinking that the car will never happen. Admittedly, we have yet to see a running prototype of the Volt (although they do apparently now exist) but that doesn't mean the company isn't fully committed to making the car happen. GM's task of creating a car that will be an affordable mainstream sedan for four passengers that meets modern standards will strangely mean that customers actually expect it to work all of the time. That's a situation that the much more expensive Tesla won't face to nearly the same degree.

[Source: Motor Trend]

Last week, Holman W. Jenkins, Jr. got space in the Wall Street Journal to question "whether GM is a genius or a dolt for developing the Volt." Jenkins suggests that gas prices might drop again. If this happens, then GM can say goodbye to consumers who want the Volt, Jenkins says. A big drop in gas prices is unlikely, based on recent trends and predictions, but not impossible. Jenkins' argument is one reason that an artificial floor on fuel prices - through higher gas taxes or a set minimum on oil prices - would secure the industry's investments in green cars. Jenkins is also unimpressed by GM's willingness to lose money on the first Volts, but he does see one strategy where GM "bribe(s) consumers to drive Volts off the lot. That is, if doing so frees GM to build and sell other cars bigger and more powerful than the cars its rivals can afford to build under the CAFE rules."

In the end Jenkins doesn't answer his own question. To be fair, this chapter is far from finished and an answer can't be declared just yet. While we're still a long way from Job 1, I think it's pretty easy to answer that the real dolt move here would be to not try to create a car like the Volt.

[Source: WSJ via BusinessWeek]

Back on the March 20, we recapped a bit of news from the first ever meeting of the so-called "Volt Nation" which took place at the New York Auto Show. Now, Lutz would like to thank the Volt Nation, along with ringleader Dr. Lyle Dennis (left, in the photo above), creator of the popular GM-Volt fan website, for meeting with Lutz and Volt design chief Frank Weber. The Volt Nation meet-us was where enthusiastic members of the community were able to ask their questions of the GM officials (You can watch videos of the entire meeting here).

A few details came out of the meeting, mostly regarding the batteries, along with the revelation that GM was willing to lose money on the Volt. This stance is echoed once again by Lutz on the GM Fastlane blog, to which he adds, "We made that mistake once. We won't make it again. I think the whole company has learned when you step out and do bold things, you win and when you're cautious and let other people do the bold things, you lose." Lutz laments losing, and he proclaims yet again that the Volt will get done. We tend to believe him.

[Source: GM Fastlane Blog]

It seems like GM is finding the middle ground. When the Chevy Volt was first announced, a price tag of $30,000 was bandied about. Then, more recently, we heard that $40,000 was a possibility. Now, according to Canada.com and confirmed by WIRED, GM is saying that the likely target is $35,000 (yes, that's U.S. dollars, not Canadian, even though the two are pretty even these days). Even though this is more than initially proposed, GM doesn't see it as a hurdle to bring out the first-gen models. GM spokesman Dee Allen told WIRED that, "We had set a target of $30,000, but if it comes in closer to $35,000 and it means meeting the 2010 deadline, that's the direction we're going to go."

According to GM, it's the power drain caused by things like the windshield wipers and audio system that's posing a problem. Without an alternator, the electricity needed by the stereo takes away power that could be going to turn the wheels. Allen said: "You really start taking away from the range when you're using 10-speaker audio systems, wipers. These systems need to be redone, and they are being redone." But not in time for 2010. First-gen Volts, GM says, will need to have "redundant systems," something that later models will probably not have.

Related:

• Bob Lutz: First-gen Volt might cost $40,000
• No surprises: GM's Wagoner tells dealers that E-Flex will spread beyond Chevy

[Source: WIRED]