GM announced this week that the Chevy Volt is still on schedule for a November 2010 release. The new plug in hybrid (PHEV) is expected to sell for between $30,000 to $40,000. However, GM only expects to be able to ramp production to 100,000 a year by 2012. As a comparison, the Toyota Prius is selling at a rate of almost a quarter a million per year.
While GM works hard to solve battery delays, cooling issues, and other unexpected issues, other companies are also speeding up their own PHEV development. Toyota has announced a follow-on Prius PHEV that will be released in 2009 using standard NiMh battery packs, but will follow-up with Li-ion packs in 2010. Ford has basically given up and said that they hope to have a PHEV available in 5 years.
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I wonder if Ford Motor Company will eventually go bankrupt?
Paul Eilerss last blog post..Can Sudden Cardiac Death Be Prevented?
They are darn close to it. My guess is that we will see further consolidation in the auto market. Maybe Nissan and Ford will merge… Thanks for stopping by.
I think Ford will strengthen its wing to other developing countries like India to avoid bankruptcy..
GM’s playing catchup again, is it? That’s just depressing. The U.S. auto manufacturers used to simply lead the world, now they’re collectively cursed with a lack of foresight.
It’s just very, very sad.
The Hawgs last blog post..The Natural State Hawg is now one month old!
True enough, it is amazing that all three major US automakers have failed to learn the lessons from past history. They found themselves in this same situation in the 80’s, but like lemmings, they just blindly follow each other into oblivion.
There’s an old joke about the US auto industry having to do with government rules on MPG standards.
When the government mandated better MPG standards, the Japanese hired more engineers. American automakers hired more lawyers. (Or lobbyists would fit too.)
This kind of says it all.
Had we as a nation mandated better MPG standards decades ago, GM and Ford would be in much better shape than they are today.
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