If they can't sell it in Europe, they can't sell it anywhere..............
For more info:
http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20140723/AUTO0103/307230062/GM-scraps-European-version-Chevy-Volt
Posted on 07/23/2014 9:44:48 AM PDT by Red Badger
Sales of the Chevy Volt in the US have been fairly stable for the last few months (between a low of 1,478 and a high of 1,777 since March), but in Europe, the Opel Ampera (sister-vehicle of the Volt) has been trending downwards. The sales decline is prompting discussion that the vehicle will be killed off in Europe, according to Automotive News Europe.
The car was a relative hit back in 2012, when it was named the European Car Of The Year and sales topped 5,200 units. Compared to 2012 numbers, which were good, Ampera sales dropped 40 percent to fewer than 3,200 in 2013 despite a massive price cut. They are down another 67 percent so far in 2014 and the car has sold just 332 units through the end of May. That's why, according to ANE, the Ampera will be discontinued once Chevy introduces the 2016 Volt in late 2015 (we've got spy shots here). The current Volt and the the Ampera are identical except for the front fascia, and it doesn't make sense to rebadge the new Volt for Opel if they're not even selling a thousand copies per year.
As far as an official word on the company's plans, Opel's Andrew Marshall told AutoblogGreen that the only thing the company is saying right now is that, "We do not comment on potential future product plans." That's vague, sure, but it's also not a resounding vote of confidence for the European Volt. Of course, GM's manager of Electrification Technology Communications, Kevin Kelly, told AutoblogGreen the same thing about the Volt's future when we asked about it based on the Ampera rumors, so we should probably just admit that no one's saying anything official about anything just yet.
If they can't sell it in Europe, they can't sell it anywhere..............
For more info:
http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20140723/AUTO0103/307230062/GM-scraps-European-version-Chevy-Volt
Dead Battery Ping...................
Are we taxpayers still subsidizing the Chevy Volt?
If the market can’t support this vehicle then let it die off.
Bwahahahahahahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
I figured the Ampera would be an even bigger flop than its North American sibling. It has too many small, economical diesels as competition in Europe.
Doesn’t it have a generator onboard to charge the battery or some such? BTW, they can’t sell the very expensive Cadillac version, either:
Drastic price cuts place Cadillac ELR where it should have been all along
http://www.torquenews.com/2250/drastic-price-cuts-place-cadillac-elr-where-it-should-have-been-all-along#sthash.KjRucm6k.dpuf
Oh, and they did cancel the Opel just now:
GM scraps European version of Chevy Volt
http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20140723/AUTO0103/307230062/GM-scraps-European-version-Chevy-Volt
I have great memories of an old Opel we had decades ago. My bil put a racing motor in it and I had so much fun with it. I learned to drive a straight shift on Memorial Parkway. Guys would come in the other lane and I would leave them in the dust. Of course, I was a lot younger back then. I miss it. : )
I think the tax credit expired. I may be wrong....................
My Step-dad had an Opel GT, red of course. The One that resembled a small Corvette. It was really fun to drive......................
Why aren’t they selling more diesels here?...........Americans still remember the GM debacle of the 80’s with the diesels that were made from gasoline blocks.................
And better yet, made right here in the Czech Republic.
The volt would have been a good concept IF they would have went with charging while driving, and utilized regenerative braking, instead of the total loss isolated traction system that they came up with. They basically replaced one gallon of fuel with a ton of lithium ion batteries.
If you want a truly fuel efficient vehicle, fuel cell to electric propulsion is the way to go. 90+% efficient electric motors combined with 50+% efficient fuel cells would squeeze as much energy out of the fuel as you could get, and would be a two fold increase in fuel efficiency. As a benchmark, about 22~25% at best is what you get from an internal combustion engine as far as converting the energy in the fuel to moving the vehicle forward.
Put in other terms, for every gallon of fuel that you burn in your car, 75% of that fuel is wasted as heat in the exhaust, the cooling system, and parasitic losses in the drivetrain as frictional losses.
TDI means turbo diesel, correct?
Yes.
It was, and still IS a beautiful automobile..................
Turbocharged Direct Injection..................
The Volt isn’t a bad looking car. That thing is gross.
That Octavia is a VW Jetta variant, correct?
A fine chice there, my FRiend.
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