You might think that 40-grand is a lot of money to pay for a car that you hafta plug in, but in reality, that’s only about half of what it costs GM to make the Chevy Volt, as Reuters reports. So far, GM has sold some 13,500 Volts this year, far fewer than the 40-thousand they had hoped for, and this despite offering leasing options as low as $199 per month. “It’s true, we’re not making money yet” on the Volt, Doug Parks, GM’s vice president of global product programs told Reuters, but he hopes that they can turn it around.
Not so fast, say several analysts, including Sandy Munro of Michigan-based Munro & Associates, who doesn’t think they’ll ever break even, considering that Volts cost at least 75-grand to produce. Other experts estimate that figure to be as high as 88K, which would put the company’s losses at almost 50-grand per hybrid. The big factor is the fact that GM has reportedly spent upwards of a billion dollars in developing the Volt, including putting new tools in its plants that make components like the car’s batteries—and you can tack on an additional 20 to 32K in costs to build each vehicle, depending on who you talk to. On that note, the Detroit plant that builds the Volt will shut down for four weeks starting next Monday, the second time production has been put on hold this year. Just what Detroit needs—fewer jobs!
In an unfortunate Catch-22, people aren’t buying enough of the hybrids due to the high price, which only exacerbates the losses when all those development dollars can’t be put into producing more product. That said, Toyota reportedly turns a profit on the Prius, now in its 12th year and third generation of existence. Its MSRP, however, is a cool $19,745. Not that they need to advertise a Two (Priuses) for the Price of One (Volt) sale—they’ve already moved 164,408 hybrids this year. No wonder they’re leaving GM in the dust…
