this post was submitted on 30 Jan 2024
93 points (97.0% liked)

[Dormant] Electric Vehicles

3206 readers
2 users here now

We have moved to:

!electricvehicles@slrpnk.net

A community for the sharing of links, news, and discussion related to Electric Vehicles.

Rules

  1. No bigotry - including racism, sexism, ableism, casteism, speciesism, homophobia, transphobia, or xenophobia.
  2. Be respectful, especially when disagreeing. Everyone should feel welcome here.
  3. No self-promotion.
  4. No irrelevant content. All posts must be relevant and related to plug-in electric vehicles — BEVs or PHEVs.
  5. No trolling.
  6. Policy, not politics. Submissions and comments about effective policymaking are allowed and encouraged in the community, however conversations and submissions about parties, politicians, and those devolving into general tribalism will be removed.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
Sunshine@lemmy.ca
Ceres@lemmy.world
93
GM should just bring back the Chevy Volt (www.theverge.com)
submitted 9 months ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/evs@lemmy.world
42 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

General Motors’ shift from an internal combustion engine-producing company to one that makes electric motors is sputtering. EV sales are up, but growing slower than expected. The company’s next-generation Ultium platform, in particular, isn’t meeting expectations. GM’s new electric trucks and SUVs seem perennially delayed — or full of buggy software.

I think I have an easy solution to a lot of these problems: bring back the Chevy Volt.

Remember the Volt, GM’s scrappy Toyota Prius fighter from the mid-2010s? The company was lauded when it first came out in 2010 as a prescient bet on vehicles with electric powertrains. And it was undeniably a very good hybrid. The first-generation model got 36 miles of electric range before the gas kicked in, while later versions would get a whopping 53 miles of electric range.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] smuuthbrane@sh.itjust.works 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

They can't just turn the Volt tap back on. Suppliers aren't supplying the parts anymore, GM likely doesn't have the dies/stamps anymore, it's all gone save for low volume replacement parts. They'd have to design it new from scratch. And that is a 4 year process, from design concept to production.

Know what else they can do in 4 years? Ramp Ultium. And that's what they're going to do.

You're not wrong, it's just not as simple an idea as one would think.

[–] hardaysknight@lemmy.world 0 points 9 months ago (1 children)

You don’t think they could make a die in 6 months with cad drawings? It’s not like they’ve forgotten about and deleted all relevant documents about a vehicle they designed.

[–] smuuthbrane@sh.itjust.works 1 points 9 months ago

I know for a fact they could. But again, would they invest the required billions to retool for the Volt, an old design, or spend that same money ramping Ultium? Same timeline, same money, but in one instance you end up with a 10 year old design of a compact car and the other you end up with the most modern vehicle they can make. It's not even a question.