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Boiling it down to the core point, "the Bolt will let GM sell more swanky Silverado pickups at much fatter margins without paying penalties or buying credits fr

Boiling it down to the core point, "the Bolt will let GM sell more swanky Silverado pickups at much fatter margins without paying penalties or buying credits from competitors". It's important to know that fuel mileage regulations are calculated on a fleet basis, not per model. So manufacturers are actually trading off optimizations across their entire product line. The Bolt is just an iteration on the existing strategy of using cheap small cars to offset the emissions from larger (higher margin) trucks.

to3m 10y ago
Here's another example - the Aston Martin Cygnet: http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/aston-martin/cygnet/96647/worlds-rarest-city-car-the-aston-martin-cygnet-story http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/aston-martin/cygnet/96647/world...
notatoad 10y ago
Is that a bad thing? Afaik, the CAFE standards are applied over the total cars sold, not just having the car in your lineup - GM can sell lots of big Silverados if they sell lots of Bolts, but they can't just make a little electric car to make the regulators happy and not care if they sell any of them, because they'll get no benefit out of it.
- Neliquat 10y ago
  That leads to selling a crap e-car at a loss to push your profitable lines. A race to the lowest common denominator is not what we need.
  - WorldMaker 10y ago
    Isn't that exactly what we need? Electric cars are selling just fine in the somewhat luxury new car space, but the majority of people that I know only ever buy used cars or lease very modest sedans. To get electric cars in the hands of those drivers, electric cars need to be cheap and "lowest common denominator" and there needs to be a flood of them sold new or leased new to enter the secondary markets effectively.
  - notatoad 10y ago
    That only works if theyre selling at less of a loss than the CAFE credits cost. Which really wouldn't be that much of a loss, so not that good of a deal. It would still have to be a decent car to sell. (This isn't a hypothetical, btw. You don't have to guess what will happen, the system has been in place for many years)

to3m 10y ago

Here's another example - the Aston Martin Cygnet: http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/aston-martin/cygnet/96647/worlds-rarest-city-car-the-aston-martin-cygnet-story http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/aston-martin/cygnet/96647/world...

notatoad 10y ago

Is that a bad thing? Afaik, the CAFE standards are applied over the total cars sold, not just having the car in your lineup - GM can sell lots of big Silverados if they sell lots of Bolts, but they can't just make a little electric car to make the regulators happy and not care if they sell any of them, because they'll get no benefit out of it.

Neliquat 10y ago
That leads to selling a crap e-car at a loss to push your profitable lines. A race to the lowest common denominator is not what we need.
- WorldMaker 10y ago
  Isn't that exactly what we need? Electric cars are selling just fine in the somewhat luxury new car space, but the majority of people that I know only ever buy used cars or lease very modest sedans. To get electric cars in the hands of those drivers, electric cars need to be cheap and "lowest common denominator" and there needs to be a flood of them sold new or leased new to enter the secondary markets effectively.
- notatoad 10y ago
  That only works if theyre selling at less of a loss than the CAFE credits cost. Which really wouldn't be that much of a loss, so not that good of a deal. It would still have to be a decent car to sell. (This isn't a hypothetical, btw. You don't have to guess what will happen, the system has been in place for many years)