Quote:
Originally Posted by Supermans
You have a strange concept of "So Cool" lol. A tutorial mode...lol..
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I like gadgets.
I'm also not so narrow-minded as some when they see a hybrid and want to yack. This efficiency stuff can be just a neat as our performance stuff...it's just different.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bullitt
A Malibu starts at $21800 and gets a combined 25 mpg. The numbers I've heard in the past for the Volt is somewhere around $40000. Even if the $7500 tax credit was a rebate, that would bring you down to $32500. That's still $10000 more than a Malibu. With gas at $2.50 a gallon and the Malibu getting 25 mpg, you could drive the Malibu 100,000 miles before any kind of savings would be realized. If fuel savings isn't the objective with an electic car, then what is? Oil dependency? The environment?
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You're getting ahead of yourself, a little. The Gen 1 Volt is a first step down a long path to the electrification of the automobile. Future Generations (and they're already working on the next gen Volt) will be less expensive. Think of it along the same lines as new TVs. They're expensive when they first came out, but over time the prices came down.
It's also equipped relatively luxuriously, justifying a price increase over a Malibu. All those screens and fancy UIs on the IP are new and cool...people will pay for them. Maybe not you or I, but some
will.
But anyways, you're right -- at $2.50/gal, the Volt will not provide the consumer with any financial benefits...First thing to realize is that efficiency is not cheap: just as we're willing to pay to go fast, others will be willing to pay to save gas. Second thing to consider is what if gas goes back up to $4.00/gal? $5.00?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bullitt
...not the masses. Joe average isn't going to give it a second look for that kind of money and Joe average is who you target to sell in volume. Sure, they'll sell, but not in any amount to mean anything.
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Not yet. Not until the price comes down.
And they know that. That's why they only intend to sell about 10,000 the first year...and then more the next, etc, etc. Don't worry.
