Since when can a company spend billions developing a next-generation car, and then expect to make money on just a few dozen thousand?
The entire premise of the article is flawed. You cannot track a car's profitability until whatever "break even" point has been reached with respect to development. I'm sure the first 10,000 Camaros didn't make a dent in its development costs, either...And what's more!!! One of the biggest goals of the Volt from the outset was NOT to be a profit power-house! It was to be the FIRST to develop a car of this caliber, and lay the foundations and infrastructure within the company for more like in the future. The things that GM has learned from Volt development has, I'm certain, been worth it alone!
I'm actually starting to get kind of disgusted with the way the media is treating the Volt. Like it, dislike it, and write about it...fine....but recently, I'm seeing foundation-less pot-shots like this one and it's not cool in the least.
Somewhere in the back of my mind, I can't help but think....Toyota developed the Prius around a decade ago, and everyone sang its praises as the next best thing in the automotive Industry. Nobody got hung up on the direct funding the company received from the Japanese gov't for the project...or the fact that Toyota "lost money" on the first batch that were sold.
But now...our own player has come up with something leaps and bounds more impressive...and all our media folks seem to care about it what new (and quite likely false) negative soundbite we can stew up for the Volt. Shame on them...and shame on us for feeding into it like lemmings.
