General Motors losing $49G on each Volt sold

By Hum
in The Neobahn

 Share

Recommended Posts

Grand Master

threetonesun

Posted
Posted

Yea that's what I thought. Could have swore it was the full electric car. Just read up on it. The combustion engine it has is only used if you fail to charge the car. Otherwise, it is perfectly capable of running electric only.

"Instead General Motors describes the Volt as an electric vehicle equipped with a "range extending" gasoline powered internal combustion engine (ICE)"

But not quite, the car still occasionally uses gas at high speeds if it's more beneficial to the fuel savings, and it will occasionally cycle gas through so that it doesn't just sit in the tank.

It's a hybrid. You can run it mostly electric, but it's still a hybrid.

Grand Master

ILikeTobacco

Posted
Posted

But not quite, the car still occasionally uses gas at high speeds if it's more beneficial to the fuel savings, and it will occasionally cycle gas through so that it doesn't just sit in the tank.

It's a hybrid. You can run it mostly electric, but it's still a hybrid.

Well regardless of what exactly is, I would say this product line needs to be retired and put into another car. The harder parts of the research are done. Now do a real marketing campaign on something the public actually wants.

That being said, I hope to god politicians are not the ones driving these decisions. Business is not like politics. You can't throw money at it and make the issue go away. Would be interesting to find out why they stopped production for a month. You don't stop production in order to change the number of cars being made. You just leave it open for less hours. A complete shut down points to more going on in the background.

Grand Master

+Gary7 Subscriber²

Posted
  • Subscriber²
Posted

Oh so NOW you think it's a hybrid..

No it is an Electric Car as advertised. It has a very small amount of Gas. Not enough that you would classify it as a hybrid as you would not be able to go cross country in it unless you want a two week trip. The reason that production was stopped is that no one is buying this car. A true affordable electric vehicle is probably never going to be built due to the oil industry.

Experienced

DrakeN2k

Posted
Posted

I hope people don't want R&D into AFV to stop just because of one car "apparently" making a loss.

I don't get why Americans love to drive in mini tanks around the street causing heath problems.

I guess america likes big things , there cars, there houses , there stomachs, there guns, there egos and there debt.

Grand Master

ILikeTobacco

Posted
Posted

Remember, Bush gave Free grants to the banks with no strings attached, 800 billion or so. They're the folks that then used part of it to pay outrageous bonuses for running the business in the ground. They could do anything they want with it and never give a penny back.

The auto bailout as mentioned was a loan that is almost paid back with interest. Ford was the only major car manufacturer that didn't accept any money from the Feds.

I realize Republicans and Obama haters don't believe in 'fact checking' but here you have the facts.

You mean like the fact that that bailout from the Bush era demanded the car companies restructure? Funny that you say others should do fact checking when you got something so simple wrong. Or the fact that Democrats controlled both the house and the senate when that bail out was voted and passed... You should probably make sure you are 100% correct before making blanket insults.
Neowinian

generalzod

Posted
Posted

Actually, unlike the Bush debt, OBama didn't give money to these companies, he gave them loans, which are almost paid back. The government is MAKING money off the loans. You fail.

GM was given $50 billion in TARP loans. They repaid 6.7 billion, and somehow this is a financial windfall for the American taxpayer. Liberal logic at it's finest.

With people like you voting it's no wonder the USA is in the trouble that they are.

So says someone in England, a country that has been in managed decline for the last 50 years.

Grand Master

+Gary7 Subscriber²

Posted
  • Subscriber²
Posted

I hope people don't want R&D into AFV to stop just because of one car "apparently" making a loss.

I don't get why Americans love to drive in mini tanks around the street causing heath problems.

I guess america likes big things , there cars, there houses , there stomachs, there guns, there egos and there debt.

What we like to do or not do is none of your business.

Grand Master

ILikeTobacco

Posted
Posted

I hope this is not true. I mean I have not seen many on the road either. This is sad.

It's a partial truth. Right now, very few have sold. Up to $1.2 bilion was spend on R&D. That cost is divided by the total sold to figure out the current profit margin on the cars. I am oversimplifing the math, but the actual profit, or lack there of is somewhat like this.

Profit per car = Final Sale Price minus cost to make car minus the quotient of the cost of R&D divided by total cars sold

Because not many cars have been sold to date, the profits will be negative for a very long time and possibly forever if the marketing team can't turn around the sales forcasts.

Experienced

bj55555

Posted
Posted

Why The Government needs to stay out of the auto business.

The guy in the center looks like a complete douche. That "Nov 6 sigh" cracked me up. Sorry, douchebag. The only thing that's going to happen on November 6 is your boy is getting spanked.

Grand Master

Open Minded

Posted
Posted

The Volt is not a hybrid. It's not. Here's why- The car only uses the electric motor/s to provide power to the wheels and uses the internal combustion engine to charge the batteries and NOT power the wheels. This is in contrast to the Prius that has both (which... makes it a hybrid) an electric motor AND an internal combustion engine to provide power to the wheels.

/Volt is not a hybrid

Grand Master

PGHammer

Posted
Posted

It is a Hybrid that is advertised as a Electric vehicle because the amount of gas it contains is for emergency use to get you back home as there are no charging stations unless you happen to work at GM.

Charging stations for the electric portion of hybrids (not just the Volt, but other plug-in hybrids such as Nissan's Leaf) exist - however, they are pricey. (Part of the all-in cost of such plug-in hybrids is the installation of the charging station in the owner's home - which requires non-insignificant changes to the owner's home wiring grid.) Those other costs are why *all* AFVs (not just electricity-based hybrids, but even flex-fuel vehicles and CNG-powered vehicles) are mainly viable in commercial and business (including farm) use - not everyday residential use.

Mostly-gasoline-powered hybrids (such as the Prius, which was originally planned as all-electric and mostly-electric, similar to the Volt) are cheaper to build *and* more suitable for residential use because they don't require as many changes for the owner (they are similar in operation to traditionally-powered cars). An AFV (all of them) is a lifestyle choice - and an expensive one.

Grand Master

Shiranui

Posted
Posted

I have never owned a car, but if I ever decide to get one it would be an EV.

Something along the lines of a Tesla Roadster.

Zero interest in petrol driven vehicles.

I hope all major automakers push ahead with their electric vehicle initiatives.

Grand Master

ahhell

Posted
Posted

The Volt is not a hybrid. It's not. Here's why- The car only uses the electric motor/s to provide power to the wheels and uses the internal combustion engine to charge the batteries and NOT power the wheels. This is in contrast to the Prius that has both (which... makes it a hybrid) an electric motor AND an internal combustion engine to provide power to the wheels.

/Volt is not a hybrid

That's just arguing semantics.

This topic is now closed to further replies.
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Posts

    • Laptop Processor Question

      By goretsky · Posted

      Hello, I am not as familiar with AMD CPUs as I am with Intel's, but as I understand it, that's a mid-range CPU from about three years ago.  I would think it to be fine for everyday casual-type use.  A larger SSD might be better, but with storage prices these days that's a decision that has to be carefully thought about. Regards, Aryeh Goretsky  
    • Politically funny images of the World

      By PsYcHoKiLLa · Posted

    • Ocenaudio 3.19.5

      By Copernic · Posted

      Ocenaudio 3.19.5 by Razvan Serea  Ocenaudio is a full featured, fast and easy to use audio and music editor. It is the ideal software for people who need to edit and analyze audio files without complications. Ocenaudio also has powerful features that will please more advanced users. To assist ocenaudio development, a powerful toolset of audio editing, analysis and manipulation called Ocen Framework was created. ocenaudio is also based on Qt framework, a well known library for cross-platform development. Cross-platform support ocenaudio is available for all major operating systems: Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. Native applications are generated for each platform from a common source, in order to achieve excelent performance and seamless integration with the operating system. All versions of ocenaudio have a uniform set of features and the same graphical interface, so the skills you learn in one platform can be used in the others. VST plugins support Ocenaudio supports VST (Virtual Studio Technology) plugins, giving its users access to numerous effects. Like the native effects, VST effects can use real-time preview to aide configuration. Real-time preview of effects Applying effects such as EQ, gain and filtering is an important part of audio editing. However, it is very tricky to get the desired result by adjusting the controls configuration alone: you must listen the processed audio. To ease the configuration of audio effects, ocenaudio has a real time preview feature: you hear the processed signal while adjusting the controls. The effect configuration window also includes a miniature view of the selected audio signal. You can navigate on this miniature view in the same way as you do on the main interface, selecting parts that interest you and listening to the effect result in real time. Multiselection for delicate editions To speed up complex audio files editing, ocenaudio includes multi-selection. With this amazing tool, you can simultaneously select different portions of an audio file and listen, edit or even apply an effect to them. For example, if you want to normalize only the excerpts of an interview where the interviewee is talking, just select them and apply the effect. Eficient edition of large files With ocenaudio, there is no limit to the length or the quantity of the audio files you can edit. Using an advanced memory management system, the application keeps your files open without wasting any of your computer's memory. Even in files several hours long, common editing operations such as copy, cut or paste happen almost instantly. Fully featured spectrogram Besides offering an incredible waveform view of your audio files, ocenaudio has a powerful and complete spectrogram view. In this view, you can analyze the spectral content of your audio signal with maximum clarity. Advanced users will be surprised to find that the spectrogram settings are applied in real time. The display is updated immediately when altering features such as the number of frequency bands, window type and size and dynamic range of the display. Ocenaudio 3.19.5 changelog: Fixes crashes related to audio devices on Windows (DirectSound and ASIO) Fixes several crashes and memory corruption issues Fixes opening several headerless files at once, which previously dropped all but one Improves batch export by suggesting and remembering the destination folder Fixes accented and non-Latin characters in VST plug-in and compressed-archive file names Adds zstd compression support and updates the archive library Other bug fixes and improvements Download: Ocenaudio 64-bit | Portable | ~40.0 MB (Freeware) Download: Ocenaudio for Linux and Mac OS View: Ocenaudio Homepage | Screenshot Get alerted to all of our Software updates on Twitter at @NeowinSoftware
    • Limited Prime Day deal sees Amazon Echo Show 11 is at its lowest price yet

      By ad47uk · Posted

      I did think about a Echo show once and it would be useful to see what my cameras see. But my brother got one and I changed my mind. Adverts and not really worth the price just to see my cameras. I have a load of dots and a Echo Gen 4, they will do.
    • The Trump administration doesn't want you to use OpenAI's GPT-5.6 without its approval

      By ad47uk · Posted

      I asking where you are from or live, because if you don't live in the U.K, why are you so bothered? That is another reason I voted out, E.U and people poking their noses in where they should not be. Sadly we still have it, Trump, and his cronies. Putin as well and no doubt others. It makes no difference what we believe, if we made the right choice or not, we are out. As I said to someone when the news first broke we have voted out, we just need to make the best of it. I have no problems with closer ties to the E.U, we still need to trade. Just don't want to be in their club.

  • Recent Achievements

    • One Month Later
      Excellence2025 earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • Week One Done
      Excellence2025 earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • Week One Done
      flexorcist earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • One Month Later
      Woland13 earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • Week One Done
      Woland13 earned a badge
      Week One Done

  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      501
    2. 2
      +Edouard
      203
    3. 3
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      145
    4. 4
      Steven P.
      72
    5. 5
      FloatingFatMan
      68
    Show More

  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!