Volt full of trouble

In a prior post, The Inconvenient Electric Car, I discuss the limitations battery powered electric cars face as the only replacement for gasoline and diesel powered vehicles. In a nutshell, electric cars lack range obtained from the battery charge and are not capable of moving heavy loads. This post is going to cover General Motor's Chevrolet Volt, a vehicle going into production this year.

First of all, I can remember the media touting the Volt as a revolutionary all electric car. It is not an electric car in the purist sense. The Nissan Leaf being released in December of 2010 is a true all electric car. The Volt really is a hybrid with plug-in capability similar to the Toyota Prius. Toyota began delivering a plug-in Prius version December 2009 according to Wikipedia. Once again, American car makers are behind the Japanese. This is nothing new.

Second, the main focus of this post is cost. Last week, Yahoo! reported that the Volt was going to be sold at a MSRP of $41,000. This is a typical price for a luxury American car. Compare this to the Leaf's $32,800 and the Prius' $22,400 sticker prices and one wonders, "Why would I buy a Volt?" I believe most people are going to answer this with a resounding "no".

The basic business lesson here is simple. If a product is to be successful, make the price competative and do not misrepresent the facts. It seems as if Chevy is intentionally making a product flop.