This article is part of the GM Authority Mailbag series, where the GM Authority Crew features and replies to your questions, comments, and observations.
The following comes to us from John:
The Chevy Volt needs to be promoted better regionally. I live in San Francisco and am a few months away from buying a Volt (trading in my Prius). None of my friends know that the Volt qualifies for California-only special goodies, like a $1,500 rebate and access to the carpool lanes. I’ve personally seen the “Volt light”, but when I tell my SF friends that I’m getting a Volt, they look at me in puzzling bewilderment, not realizing what the car can do or that it qualifies for California-only incentives.
No contest there, John. GM is addressing the lack of “general” awareness with ads, but we’re not aware of any regional (read: California-specific) efforts to market the car. Given that California is increasingly responsible for a greater percentage of Volt sales, we have to wonder how many more Volts can be sold in The Golden State were the vehicle marketed more effectively there — especially given that the car now complies with the State’s emissions requirements.
PS: another GM Authority reader — Neal — has been emailing us with similar comments over the last couple of months. Thanks to Neal and John for tipping us.
Comments
HELLO…
This sounds just like GM-THINK — trying to work a problem through marketing and promotions that should be solved through a combination of strategic planning and engineering. The Volt’s problem isn’t that people don’t know about it. The problem is that it is an expensive high-end small car with Chevrolet skin. And it’s only a people-mover, so that gives it limited appeal.
Wait until the Ford C-MAX is out for a while and we will see the difference that a better strategy can make. The Volt might outperform the C-MAX Energi in terms of EV range, but the C-MAX is much cheaper and offers considerably more utility. In time it will crush the Prius series if reliability holds. Made in the USA is a huge plus. In short, the C-MAX is exactly what I wish the Volt had been from the start.
GM does a lot of things right and I would really rather buy a GM product than a Ford, but the last few years have made that difficult given the limited flexibility of GM’s products.
I can put my lawn mower in the back of my Volt.
I’m not sure you could do that in the C-Max with the battery pushing up into the cargo area.
I suspect one will be able to haul more in the Volt’s hatchback/flat floor design.
This article has lots of good pictures that show there should be no problem hauling a lawnmower in a C-MAX Energi.
http://www.kbb.com/car-news/all-the-latest/2013-ford-c_max-energi-first-drive/
Of course, the base C-MAX contains a lot more space and, as a result of it being available in the mid-20s, that will put a lot of them on the streets. That is the kind of marketing that will be most effective.
There is a lot I don’t like about Ford. Their front facia is awful, their dealerships in my area are awful, their infotainment systems are too complicated, and I worry about their reliability/service — all things done better by GM — but it’s hard to argue against the variety in their lineup. And they offer state-of-the-art power trains in their small, inexpensive cars.
The C-MAX has been added to my short-list. If I could haul a kayak on a Volt, it would already be in my garage. Still waiting on GM, but running out of time.
@VeranoHatch we’ve already established that the Voltec powertrain needs to be applied across a greater variety of models/body styles. But marketing is still an issue as it relates to the Volt.
Fact is, many people have heard of the Volt nameplate (in whatever fashion), but the majority of those aren’t familiar with its benefits. This gets fixed with 1) time and 2) education (via promotions, events, and ads).
As for the (butt-ugly) C-Max — we’ll see how it performs in the market. Its very limited EV-only range is the reason for its lower-than-Volt price… The most popular non-truck body style in the US is a sedan (by a long shot). The Volt looks like a sedan, but offers the benefits of a pseudo-hatch. So theoretically, it should appeal to more buyers than the C-Max, if it were not for its high price.
Ultimately, GM needs to apply Voltec across the model range and bring the cost of the powertrain down. Kind of a chicken-and-the-egg thing, ain’t it?
GM butchered the Volts marketing from the very beginning. Here near L.A., I see alot of volt ads but there lame and dont even mention the carpool sticker. One of the main reasons the prius got as far as it has was because of that sticker the first gen prius came with. Here its a HUGE selling point. But forget the rebate and sticker, the ads dont even explain what the volt is capable of. Most of the ads are just about a few people standing next to a volt and saying how much they love their car and how they almost never put gas in the volt. Im no marketing expert and it can be tough to explain something as complicated as the volt in 30 seconds, but they can definitely do much better.
As for the c – max, other than the bad front fascia , the rest is well designed , its not that bad.
Alex, I think we will have to agree to disagree on this one. In my opinion, the kind of people likely to buy a “green car” are also the kind of people interested in utility/economy. If you were to survey the cars on the roach where I live and add up all vehicles with rear lift-gates versus sedans I think you would find the numbers to be comparable. If an SUV-buyer suddenly sees the light and becomes fuel conscious, he is much more likely in my opinion to buy the C-Max style versus the sedan-like Volt (assuming both had the same battery capacity and price). The C-Max will be available with roof rails for that vacation cargo-carrier, boat, bikes, etc. Rails with thin, aerodynamic crossbars do not appreciable add to the car’s drag, and they would be optional anyway. GM’s design eliminates the possibility.
Obviously Ford has a different view of the market than does GM. As I recall, sales data suggest that the Focus sedan/hatch split is not particularly one-sided. If we’re talking EV/hybrid, Ford obviously believes the market will lean toward the hatch. Interesting to see how it plays out.
Perhaps we will have to agree to disagree. But only after I say the following 🙂
“If an SUV-buyer suddenly sees the light and becomes fuel conscious, he is much more likely in my opinion to buy the C-Max style versus the sedan-like Volt (assuming both had the same battery capacity and price).”
Perhaps that’s the case, or maybe not altogether. I’m not convinced of the idea that simply because a consumer elected to buy an SUV/CUV at one point in his/her life, that he/she is more likely to make the same choice again. If the consumer does, indeed, “see the light”, who is to say he/she won’t make an even bigger change and move away from an inferior body style (SUV/CUV) in the first place?
However, that’s not to take away from my original comment — which is that the Voltec powertrain needs to be in sedans, hatches, crossovers, coupes, etc. — not just locked to a single body style.
As for the Focus — I remember seeing literature from Ford Corporate (addressed to dealers) outlining the split between Focus sedan and hatch production. It was something along the lines of 80% sedan, 20% hatch.
Alex, I think you are a bit off, at least based on what one can find quickly in the public domain…
” …. Approximately 50 percent of 2011 Ford Fiesta vehicles now being sold in the U.S. are hatchback models; 41 percent of the all-new 2012 Ford Focus sales are hatchbacks …”
http://media.ford.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=34903
This is from just a quick internet search, but it seems in line with what I’ve been seeing as a driver on the roads in suburban Houston. And it could have been even better had Ford not botched its seat folding mechanism in the Focus, which robs the front passengers of leg room. They did it right in the C-MAX by making the rear seats thinner and eliminating the need to fold the rear seat bottoms forward.
I’ll assume that when you use the word “inferior” to describe the SUV/CUV body style that you are referring to the high center of gravity and higher drag coefficient. I don’t think the C-MAX suffers on either issue, and it certainly is way ahead of sedans in terms of cargo handling, both within the vehicle and on its roof.
@VeranoHatch The figures you’re referring to are from July of 2011; those are pretty much launch numbers, if I remember correctly. Now that we have a more “traditional” data distribution, sales of the Focus hatch are significantly lower. I’m not sure about the Fiesta, but wouldn’t be too surprised if the hatch is more popular than the sedan for that model; the hatch is the model that Ford initially conceived to be the Fiesta, and the sedan is a last-minute add-on to the lineup to appease sedan-loving Americans 🙂
And yes — that’s exactly what I meant in describing CUV/SUV body style. Being Focus-based, the C-Max doesn’t suffer much from either. However, have you driven one yet? All of Ford’s new C-platform vehicles have a dash that’s nearly 3 feet in length (that harms the driving experience/position), and the C-Max itself is very ugly… to me. Subjective, of course… but given that the Focus and Fusion came out well above average, I simply don’t understand what could have gone so terribly wrong with the “van” variant.
I have rented the new Focus but have not driven the C-Max yet. Agree about dash depth. My MINI is unnecessarily deep and took some time to get used to, but all of the aerodynamic cars are going to be like that if their is a lot of headroom. I’d still like to see some hard numbers on hatch/sedan sales for C-class cars. I just don’t see the imbalance where I live, and as I said, don’t think the same, generalized data would apply to “green” buyers. Ford and Toyota obviously agree with me. GM is in your camp.
Marketing is an age-old GM problem and awareness is one phase of marketing.
I agree..Gm just doesn’t get it.
Volt is a winner, but without solid marketing and good quality and service it will not be a winner. Poor paint on bumpers and Reps. without knowledge is not helpful does not help either.
Brian
I’ve seen targeted California advertising for the Volt in LA. I think they are the standard Volt ads, but with a tag line at the end about it now qualifying for the HOV lane sticker and see your Southern California Chevrolet dealer (something like that). So it’s likely the pool of marketing money that GM throws in various directions and that the So Cal Chevy dealer network puts the tag at the end.
And perhaps it’s just my area of Metro LA, but I’ve seen plenty of Volts on the road and many with the new, highly-coveted HOV stickers. I see fewer of the Plug-In Prii running around and trust me, this is Prius territory. You could throw a stone in any direction at any intersection and not miss a Prius.
Of course, it helps that the lease on the Volt is reasonably cheap. It takes advantage of the federal tax credit to vent the monthly payment making it very reasonable. When you lease the car, you don’t have to wait to file a federal tax return to claim the credit (if you can even use it).
GM’s biggest problem is lack of dealers. With only 2 Chevy dealers in the LA Metro area (From the Pacific Ocean in Santa Monica to Downtown LA) and pretty crappy dealers at that, you have to go out of your way for sales, but worse, for service, from dilapidated-facility dealerships with matching, clueless sales staff.
Yet there is a Chevy dealer in Burbank and Glendale, much smaller cities, within a few miles of each other, that have easy access to both major revenue sources: Disney Studios, ABC Network, KABC-TV, and Warner Bros. and hundreds of smaller businesses fueled by the entertainment industry – all hotbeds for everything “green” from a Fisker Karma to a Tesla Model S to a Prius.
Chevrolet marketing should focus Volt sales on regions/states where EV’s are widely accepted and desired. Focus on California, New York, Washington, Oregon, British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec..San Fransisco/San Jose area should be ground zero.
I don’t think marketing is the problem at all. The problems is that people are just not as aware as they could or should be. Think about it. There are people in the United States that have college degrees and hold down influential jobs who think that Africa is a country and that Obama is a Muslim. If GM went about literally waving a Volt in front of the eyes of every car-buying adult, there would be some who wouldn’t notice. We really give people waaaaaaay to much intellectual credit.
True, for such an “educated” society, we are pretty dumb. 🙂
“The problem is that people are just not as aware as they could or should be.”
Sounds like that’s marketings responsibility to me….
Marketing can only do so much. People have to go the extra 1/32 mile. Think of the number of people who won’t buy a Volt because as far as they are concerned it is the posterchild for some still-to-be-revealed socialist government being spearheaded by Barack Obama. They simply refuse to acknowledge the fact that Volt development was well underway by the time Obama took office and neither the previous Republican government nor the Democratic one that followed had anything to do with that development. If you’re suggesting that GM run ads declaring that it’s not a socialist mobile, then that’s a bit much. A line has to be drawn somewhere. The Volt has won award after award and in my opinion is very well known. Let’s be real. The biggest problem that the Volt has is its price. If it was being sold at the price of a Prius it would sell far better. Remember, though, that the Volt is still outselling many cars that are “more popular”. We saw that list right here on GMA.
Now only if NYS would offer a same credit like Colorado does, Id buy one in a heart beat next year instead of a cruze diesel. That would be Fed: 7500, NYS 7500 and my personal CC rebate of 3500 reaching a 21.5k price I like.
I think the photos published are the C-Max hybrid, which does have a flat cargo area floor. In the Energi version, however, the battery pushes up into the cargo.
@Waldo. If you look at the photos closely in the linked article within my previous post you will notice that much of the floor is raised for the batteries. The C-Max is roof is higher than the Volt so there is still plenty of cargo room, but not as much as the Prius V, which is a longer vehicle.
If you read Bob Lutz’s last book, he gives some interesting insights into the Volt.
For example, it is designed to be “range limited” so that the batteries don’t fall below 50% charge. That extends battery life and battery capacity tremendously. If you have a laptop and use it on battery only you will know what I mean about how it affects the battery..
So GM does this great stuff — but do they tell people about it? I haven’t seen anything. outlining the intelligence of their design. Instead, they get lambasted for poor range of the Volt versus their competitors.
It is interesting to note that Nissan has already bought back some Leaf models for battery issues although it claims that the vehicles had high mileage.
The Volt reminds me of the SSR truck debacle- way too much money for what it is and competes with. The car makes no sense in CA with our super high electricity rates- 59% higher than other states for industrial use. It’s cheaper to own a gas car at $4.00 a gallon when your electricity bill goes to $350 a month. Relax, Obama likes the Volt, he’ll use your money to buy a few more.