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Run a factory at three shifts and sell every vehicle at top dollar and the profits are great. Run at 50% capacity and the losses are great, whether you are General Motors or Toyota Motor (http://www.forbes.com/business/2008/12/04/general-motors-volt-biz-manufacturing-cz_jf_1205flint.html)

http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/501/2011_Chevrolet_Cruze.jpgJery Flint - Forbes - Dec. 05, 2008

Couple of Flint's points: GM may die in the US, but live on overseas. A bread-and-butter car like the Cruize is more likely to be what will save GM -- Ed

Forget what some people in the media are saying. General Motors is not going out of business. Yes, the company is in a terrible crisis, but even if the business here completely fails, GM's foreign empire--in Europe, Brazil and China--will carry on the fight.

In Europe, General Motors newest sedan, the Opel Insignia, just won "car of the year" from the Continent's car writers. GM's sales in Brazil and Argentina--574,000 cars and trucks in 10 months--are 20% ahead of last year. This company will endure, regardless of what happens in the U.S....http://www.forbes.com/business/2008/12/04/general-motors-volt-biz-manufacturing-cz_jf_1205flint.html

The Volt faces obstacles too. You cannot run a cord from your sixth-floor apartment to recharge it. To get those 40 miles on electric power, the car needs lots of batteries, maybe $10,000 or more worth.



If you live that deep in the city where you live on the sixth floor apartment, you probably don't need a car

If you don't live in that type of city and still live on the sixth floor, you probably wont be able to afford the volt.

The volt is a "halo" for now, but there are hopes it will become more than just so. They got the first chance at an electric car a while back and could be coming up with something way more advanced by now, but this is what they're stuck with...they should make the best of it.

I still want one.

Yeah, I'm not sure this guy is an expert by any means, so I read this as his un-expert opinion.

I agree the Volt needs to work, but the Cadillac is doing well now, the Corvette has been doing good, the Cruze sounds great. GM makes some good vehicles, the problem is they make a lot of garbage too. Too many brands, too many dealers, too many plants, too many retirees...

And I'm not sure where he gets his "Toyota doesn't have pensions yet" idea from. All US companies are required to fund pension obligations as they go. The difference is that Toyota did not promise full medical benefits to retirees and watched those costs skyrocket.

I would not be so dismissive of Jerry Flint.

GM is doing a lot better in other parts of the world...if the North American market was doing as well they would not be pleading for government help. It's also worth noting that outside North America GM is not doing it by pushing large SUVs and pickups. ;)

The oldest Japanese plant in the US was opened in 1982? There has not been time to accumulate senior workers on the scale of GM, Ford, and Chrysler - yet.

Detroit's biggest cost is overcapacity. For years they had been in denial - thought they could crank out FSPs forever (or and least desperately hoped for it). Ford was the only one of the three to bit the bullet and accept reality that reducing market share - and plants was necessary to remain profitable.

I'd characterize the Prius as a halo car that sucessfully became mainstream. It's been out for ten years. GM is trying to get the Volt out in less time in very adverse conditions.

A significant issue to face with GM using the Volt as a halo car... is that unless it is a better halo than what the other companies have it won't work.

From what I've read the Prius-III PHEV Halo & Mainstream car will be on the market before the Volt... they are already established... and a consumer accepted image... and they will get a head start... even if the Volt is a side by side better Halo car... it has to fight up hill , against the wind, and its competitors have a head start.

It's a tall order to fill.

And the technology is not that hard for others to mimic ...

It's an EV with a gasoline powered generator... come on now.:rolleyes:

Maybe the problem is that GM started to believe their own North-American-driven PR Hype about FSP's. Just as they are currently in denial with their "We are too big to let us fail".

Their current ad campaigns show they haven't learned anything. They WERE showing a big 52 mpg for the Pontiac G6 (the small print was too small to read at all). That was pretty tough to believe, even as a highway-only best-case instantaneous mileage. Now this week they've just dropped the mpg's from all their ads (after all, the American public don't want to know such trivial things, especially when gas is cheap).

Both the PR and the moral mindset at the top echelons of the Boffo 3 need a major shakeup. It's not just monitary bankruptcy that they are suffering from, anymore.

Any non-commercial-plated FSP/Hummer on the road with just one passenger should be an automatic $100 ticket for Driving without Geo-political Concern (as in "feed a terrorist"). We have GOT to change that "Feel Safe; Drive a Sherman Tank" mindset.

With two people maybe they just get a warning ticket.

I voted "yes" - it's more than a Halo car.

Looking beyond the ideas pitched by marketing and all the guessing on sales forecasts, I considered the E-flex platform it's built on. By modifying the powerplant used to run the generator, you can fuel different versions on diesel, hydrogen, or just about any other fuel suitable for internal combustion engines. The Volt will be gas-only in the US, but the platform is highly adaptable. What GM has developed for the "Volt" can be used in subsequent models that will eventually sell in volume as material costs fall over time. The R&D work to develop this architecture is already complete, and it is reusable - and potentially resellable as intellectual property. It is a significant departure in vehicle and powertrain design, and a radical change in how the power is developed and applied.

But it is a halo car in that it will likely sell lots of Cruze sedans, as they will be pitched as a "Volt without the battery and charging cord for about half the price". And that's pretty much what a Cruze is. It and the Volt are both built on the same platform, and will be very similar in shape and size - inside and out. People will come to see the Volt, and drive off in a Cruze.