Rewind a decade, and the automotive industry was in shambles. The Great Recession decimated the American workforce and American companies virtually overnight. Retirement savings were wiped out, and housing prices plummeted, leaving many of the then unemployed with mortgages they couldn’t afford on homes that were worthless. Rising gas prices hurt the sales of large SUVs and pickup trucks—the backbone of the American automotive industry at the time. Factory workers across the country lost their jobs, and oil levels peaked, snowballing into one of the greatest financial disasters since the Great Depression. General Motors and others filed for bankruptcy as ballooning costs outpaced profits in a down market. But before the everything went to crap, General Motors saw a glimpse of the future and called it the Chevrolet Volt.
The Chevrolet Volt concept debuted in January 2007, months before the financial collapse. However, the Volt would quickly become a rallying point for the automaker as it tried to stave off financial ruin. It was billed, as Detroit Free Press columnist Chrissie Thompson recalls, as “futuristic,” “a signal,” and “the premier car for General Motors.”
GM championed the electric hybrid as did much of the press, as signaled a possible shift in thinking for the Detroit automaker. No longer were they producing stodgy, inefficient SUVs and trucks with lackluster interiors. The GM of tomorrow would be electric.
Except the car-buying public disregarded the Great Recession as historical canon. The Chevrolet Volt debuted in 2009 as a 2010 model. But sales never took off as much as the hype would have made it seem. Then-CEO Dan Akerson wanted more than 100,000 Chevy Volts produced annually. Sales never cracked 25,000 units in a single year. Falling gas prices, an influx of efficient gas-powered compact cars, and a recovering economy allowed consumers to pass on the $40,000 hybrid-electric Volt.
The press poured a lot of ink on the page about the Chevrolet Volt and how it’d save General Motors and the American auto industry. But now there’s been a shift in tone. Last week, GM announced it wanted to close the Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly Plant and discontinue Volt production. Failing to live up to the unrealistic expectations that everybody wanted the Volt to be, the car is now being criticized as a reason why thousands of jobs are on the line.
The Volt, as great of a car as we think it is, couldn’t survive the changing trends of consumers. Trends that have led to a sales increase in less maneuverable crossovers and oversized trucks like never before, thanks to the trend of low gas prices and an abundance of available credit with generous loan terms.
Ten years ago, the press championed the Chevrolet Volt. Today, they’re circling to write its obituary.
Comments
The sedan known a Volt is dead. But why has GM dragged it’s feet implementing the Voltec technology in the Volt to anything that sells? How many Voltec based Equinoxes or Traverses could they have sold?
Mark c. I am with you on that. The volt drivetrain could hav been used in so many more vehicles. Instead GM put it in just one compact sedan and then ignore it other than the refresh of that sedan several years later. It could have used in SUV’s ,other sedans from compact to luxury spread across all of GM’s brands. Full size SUV’s such as the Tahoe to the Escalade. The battery pack could have grown in power output without growing in size and weight with different gasoline engines to match the vehicle it was installed in. Take for example the luxury sedan by Malcom Bricklin used a version of the Volt drivetrain with a different Engine. The Volt drive system could have been so much more if it hadn’t been a GM product. GM is well known for spending lots of money to develope good products only to not promote ,advitise, spread the use of it or further develope it and let it die after a few years.
I think a Traverse with the voltec powertrain would do great!
Personally I would replace the 1.5 with the 1.6 Diesel, or an even smaller 3 cylinder Diesel. Anyone who knows about power generation knows that diesel power is much more efficient, hence why most industrial generators are diesel.
Imagine a CUV that could go 15 miles on pure electric and then burn 1 gallon of diesel for every 67 miles driven. How freaking cool would that be?!
Henry, doing a little math will show that your scenario would cost more than using the current gasoline engine for that distance. In addition, for stop and go driving, with the engine being shut down at stops. I wonder how efficient a diesel engine would be. Perhaps a diesel could be engineered to operate efficiently under stop and go conditions…I don’t know, but, maybe it could be done. Otherwise, using a diesel under those conditions wouldn’t bring the operating temperature into the desired range. imho. Also, doesn’t the diesel require more oil and more frequent oil and filter changes as opposed to a gasoline engine? I could be wrong, but, I don’t think that the diesel engine would be a good choice in the Voltec environment.
That is the US media for you, bait you up then kill you. The Bolt also help did in the Volt. That said its time GM leverage Voltec systems into main stream vehicles.
Once it was labelled a “hybrid” it was basically over for the Volt. To most, a small hybrid hatchback = Prius. The clueless masses simply considered it to be a decent looking , but far too expensive Chevy Prius. GM tried to explain initially that it’s an electric car with a range extending gas engine, but they gave up pretty quickly and let it be just another hybrid. GM also gave up quick on using the Voltec drive system on another type of vehicle, damn shame because there is an audience for that vehicle.
I bought a 2012 Volt about 6 months ago, it’s a far better car than even I expected. One drive and you can tell the car was well developed and plenty of effort went into making it as good as possible. Maybe that’s part of the problem? Maybe they should have not tried so hard? Maybe the Volt should have been basically a Chevy Prius?
Let me pose this to you, maybe GM should have advertised the Volt as well as it did with all of its other products. The Volt was just not advertised to the public. Were the buying public expected to lift the rock to find the gem? GM didn’t want to rock the boat with the more lucrative products, especially their pickup trucks and CUVs that were making the profits. imho.
General Motors never sold the Volt properly as some people still don’t know or understand what the car is especially as there are no commercials to sell the car. GM can always replace the 1.5L gas motor with a fuel cell as this is what car companies need to do because there is no infrastructure to support an all electric fleet. The US power grid cannot support it and there are no rapid recharging stalls because not everyone lives in a house with a garage which means needing to recharge or the street unless they have something like a Volt which can recharge the batteries.
“The US power grid cannot support it” multiple studies say otherwise, I’ll allow you to do your own research if you care so I don’t cherry pick articles…The reason it does work is most people who can charge at home do so overnight therefore there’s a minimal load on the grid…The second most common place to charge is at work…Charging stations for the overwhelming majority are for destination charging only…
There is even less of an infrastructure to support Fuel Cells.
the volt was a cool car and if the caddy ELR had been marketed like tesla and rich americans bought to show there are green we could still have these vehicles.Before making the volt publicy dead Gm should have introduced Volt3 the suv to keep it going since some of the plant closings according to GM is so they can focus on electric cars
Part of the problem is it is a sedan in a declining market.
It should have been made a CUV sooner.
But now we are to the point that people who want electric want full electric and people who want gas just want gas.
It was a good idea that time and technology is passing up.
I agree with your first two sentences. I would add that another part of the problem is that the Volt was never sold through intense, constant, advertising as the other bread-and-butter lineup of vehicles were. If the Volt had been advertised and the public made aware of its attributes (the Voltec technology) , there is no doubt that more Volts would have been sold and the car made more successful.
Your third sentence is not totally true. There are those owning Volts who want the freedom to roam hither and yon without the worry of where to plug in, when making spontaneous, unplanned, side trips. One couldn’t do that very successfully with a BEV. The Voltec system is required.
I would question whether or not your last sentence is valid. Please show me proof. I can’t accept the actions of GM as proof, at least from a technology point of view.
With the Volt, you can charge or not. My son drove my Volt for a year after I got my ELR and could rarely charge because of the price to charge in his area. It was cheaper for him to just burn gas. That’s one of the things I liked about the Volt and the ELR compared to the Bolt. After 200 whatever miles in the Bolt you have to find a spot to charge where as the Volt you had the gas engine to get you to your destination and the plug in if you wanted. When traveling from one city to another there aren’t as many places in the wide open country to charge as there are gas stations. I would do my daily driving in total electric, and then every other month I would drive the 256 mile to visit family using the gas generator. I’d probably be getting another one if it weren’t for GM stopping production. So far the only competitor is the Honda Clarity but both the Volt and the ELR were much easier on the eyes.
Version 2 didn’t push enough. The platform needed to move to midsize, battery needed skate board design. Better design needed. Again CUV was a better option. They need to cost down and scale across medels like traverse, Colorado equinox etc
…and GM needed to advertise the Volt as they did with their bread-and-butter vehicles. They didn’t and the Volt wasn’t a success because of that, imo. Tell me why there is continuous advertising of vehicles that are selling in the millions, yet no advertising of the Volt? Hummm…seems like GM didn’t want the Volt to take off.
So much for a “zero emission” future.
At the end of the day the car was expensive. Just as the Bolt is now.
Expensive up front, perhaps, yet minimal maintenance. No brake pad replacement. Oil and filter changes every two years. No need for weekly visits to the gas station and fuel (electricity) is way less costly. When operating expenses are compared, the Volt is no more expensive to own that a Cruise, imho. Nobody thinks of the cost of ownership, only the purchase price. Too bad as the Volt is a very pleasurable car to own and drive.
Among its many problems GM has a marketing department and ad agencies that couldn’t sell ice water in Death Valley!
That’s funny but sad also because it’s true.
The media didn’t kill the Volt, GM did. N0 support, no advertising and no future development if the voltec drivetrain. I had a Bolt and then an ELR. Where us the next step, the replacement vehicle. Years ago they made noises about a Volt suv. I waited and waited and am still waiting. GM dropped the ball and thats what killed the Volt.
My wife and I are a two car family, a Cadillac SRX and a Volt. The Volt is mine. Love the car, its excelleration, etc. My work commute is less that 55 miles. Hardly ever gas-up. In the 2 years I’ve owned the Volt, I’ve never experience ANY promotions, commercials, … nothing! No wonder the clowns at GM cancelled Volt pormotion. Guess the GM Cadillac Execs love gas, so out with the electric and hybrids. I was planning to purchase a 2020 Volt. I’m now looking at the Honda Clarity (gas/electric ala Volt) … Da! I would consider a Bolt only if GM would put a gasoline engine in it. Wonder what they would call it, Volt 2. GM should double-up on hiring more MBAs.
since it has a ICE it is not a zero emission vehicle to get ZEV credits for GM needs to sell PUs and large SUVs
I am going to try to respond to several of these comments here based on my perspective as a five year Volt owner, veteran and father to four veteran sons. (1)Too expensive? New trucks average around 50 grand or twice that for a loaded diesel, get around 15 MPG and need frequent 4 gallon oil changes (in diesels). Our ’13 Volt was 30 grand minus $7500 credit, has saved about $1,000 per yr in fuel compared to a 30 MPG car, is on it’s second oil change in 83,000 miles and that’s it – even brakes are still like new. (2) “Cheap Gas” hog buyers vs. EV buyers – I was in the car biz in 2008 – before the crash with cheap gas you could hardly give away econoboxes – but as soon as gas prices spiked just prior to the crash, used car lots filled up with trucks and SUVs traded in on priuses, etc. Does that mean that sheeple have short attention spans? YES! But now with viable EV tech on it’s way – FINALLY, I think there is a latent demand waiting for a REAL EV transition – as in completely useful with no compromises, like the current inadequate batt tech and lack of over the road charging. As far as city people not having a place to charge my question to them is why the hell live where driving is measured in inches per hour anyway?Many say they drive a big vehicle to be safer than the next guy in the smaller car – that logic will eventually all have us in Abrams tanks. And getting back to “cheap gas” lets not talk about the gadzillions spent in warfare over oil and the associated problems of sending that money to stone age despots, pollution, disease, etc. (3) Does current “clean energy” live up to the name? Not when compared to something like zero point energy but that’s gonna require alot more people to see the folly of choosing to buy that suburban or truck as a daily driver over a Volt, Bolt, etc. AND said folks waking up to the incredible technology that would fix all of these conundrums if allowed to come to the light of day. That being said I much prefer to drive the 90MPG Volt that the 13 MPG silverado parked next to it. (4) Is the Car industry and GM culpable? HELL YES! for all the reasons mentioned and many more, but as long as said sheeple keep choosing the high profit, environmentally unsustainable, car crushing behemoths, they will keep doing “what’s best for the stockholders”. I gave up on waiting for GM’s promised Voltec CUV and lifted our Volt 3 inches to better deal with every day stuff. As for me? I’m gonna buy the first affordable AWD, EV that can do everything that my gas hog truck currently does, maybe even if it’s got a foreign name plate . PS Rivian and Tesla – I do not think a truck needs to be outfitted like a Bentley and do 0 to warp speed in 3 seconds flat. Can’t someone build a plain jane workhorse that tows well, with 500+ mile range for under 40 grand?.. but I digress… again
Sounds like you may already know about “Workhorse” from Loveland OH.
Ron,
Right on. As is and has been typical of all the car manufacturers, advertise the hell out of your most profitable vehicles and convince the public that “this is what you need.” I currently drive a Buick Lacrosse. It is a fine automobile. Comfortable and relatively economical. (overall mpg 25.9) My lease will be up in a few months and I have decided to go with a 2019 Volt. I have driven the car and find it to be just as comfortable as the Buick and a whole lot more economical. I plan to order one in the next month with the hope that in the next three to four years there will be a Bolt type replacement for the Volt. One that is full EV and has some style in it’s design rather than being a box on wheels.
Great powertrain, wrong vehicle.
It deserves to live on in a small crossover where the battery pack doesn’t intrude on rear seat seating.