Suprising news out of the Geneva Auto Show today. Wayne Brannon, Chevrolet Europe President announced that the Chevy Volt will soon go on sale in Germany, Europe's most prosperous economy.
"We believe the Volt is the best solution on the planet today for worry-free electric driving", said Brannon. "Our price in Europe is based on the U.S. Volt price adjusted for transportation cost, import duties, exchange rates and homologation." The Volt will be sold for Eur 41,950, VAT included. The average car price in Germany is about 25,000 Euros. The Volt will come with an 8 year 160,000 km warranty. This translates to the same 100,000 mile warranty they have offered here in the states.
Opel is a German automobile company founded by Adam Opel in 1862. Opel has been building automobiles since 1899. The company is headquartered at the Adam Opel Haus in Russelsheim, and has been a wholly owned subsidiary of GM since 1929. Unfortunately, it hasn't had the best reputation for quality over the past few decades. Perhaps this is the reason GM has decided to launch the Volt first. Get the technology out there, then when you launch another brand with the same technology inside for a lower price perhaps the consumer will feel more at ease making the purchase.
I've always believed E-Rev cars will explode in Europe far faster than they will in the States. Not only do Europeans not have the space to own additional automobiles, we all know gas over there is ridiculously high. Although so is electricity. Perhaps the Socialist European economies (and I'm not saying that in good or a bad way) will make it easy for electric car owners to finance the 7 or 8 solar panels necessary to charge their cars each day. If we could do that in the States and our government could guarantee low or zero interest loans it would be far cheaper to have panels on your garage roof than it would to buy gas or even electricity. Also, there would be no additional drain on the electric grid.
So, is this a good move or a bad one? In our opinion here at the Chevy Volt blog, the more the merrier. The world has waited long enough for E-Rev's, so why wait a minute longer.
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Thanks for stopping by fellow Volt Fans!
ReplyDeleteFrom Dan Petit,
ReplyDeleteGreat little site going on here John!
Your site is just what I had been hoping many more Volt owners would do. I like your branching out with other content as well. I was really intrigued with the other content on your right sidebar.
From Post:
ReplyDeleteGet the technology out there, then when you launch another brand with the same technology inside for a lower price perhaps the consumer will feel more at ease making the purchase.
I hope that's the plan for the US.
Thanks Dan,
ReplyDeleteI only started this site because of the lack of new postings when Lyle sold GM-Volt. They're doing better over there now but I think I'll keep posting. Especially on the weekends when GM-Volt won't be. For now though every day. Thanks for stopping by.
To Eco_Turbo, I agree. Even if the Volt isn't as huge a hit as we'd all like, when there's a second gen version out there that's comfortably getting well over 40 miles a charge, the price comes down and there are a few competitors then things will be great.
Hey John,
ReplyDeleteCan you earn money by listing ads? If so, how much?
Dan Petit.
The way I've earned 26 bucks on this site is by the Google ads that you see on this blog. When you start a blog you can sign up for an "adsense" account. You make almost nothing just having them on your page, but when someone clicks on one you earn between 50 and 90 cents. That amount suprised me. So far since I started this blog a couple weeks ago I've had about 2800 hits and 30 clicks for a total of 26.32 in earnings. You supposedly get a check or direct deposit when you hit your first 100 dollars. I've never gotten there yet. This is my first blog. If you haven't read I'm giving 70 percent away, 35 percent to the Red Cross and 35 percent to a visitor or visitors, I haven't decided how yet on that one. I donated 35 bucks to the Red Cross pre-emptively.
ReplyDeleteI'd imagine you'd have to have a pretty popular site to make any real money.
Correction, I've had 1 click today for 1.12 cents, I don't know what the max could be, Google auctions off the ads so I guess it varies, I've seen click throughs be as low as 40 cents or maybe lower, you don't always see what each click is worth, It'll just say 3 clicks 2.38 or 2 clicks 1.23. You never know except for the fact that you only make money if someone clicks on an add.
ReplyDeleteThey also make you agree that you won't click ads yourself or ask people to click ads for you.
Thanks for the info on adsense.
ReplyDeleteWhile it's not much, I'd bet I could really build up and audience with it, with what I can write about regarding the automotive products I like.
Thanks again, John.
Dan Petit