GM's Top Marketing Officer Says Volt Aims at 'Average Human Being'

GM's Top Marketing Officer Says Volt Aims at 'Average Human Being'

By Scott Doggett August 30, 2010

By Dale Buss, Contributor

General Motors plans to highlight the "car" aspects rather than the "electric" nature of the Chevrolet Volt when it introduces the revolutionary extended-range hybrid late this fall, as it attempts to mainstream a new vehicle type whose reception by typical American consumers is in no way assured.

GM's chief marketing officer, Joel Ewanick, tells Green Car Advisor that ensuring auspicious launches of Volt as well as the upcoming Chevrolet Cruze conventionally powered small car are his top immediate marketing priorities.

While Ewanick's most important long-term goal is straightening out GM's overall rickety brand architecture and boosting the individual Chevrolet, Buick, Cadillac and GMC brands, he says, "We made a conscious decision not to get too fancy about the brand as we launch these vehicles. We don't want to get in the way of ourselves."

Emphasizing Differences

Ewanick is hatching specific plans to deal with two of the most egregious characteristics of Volt: its potential strangeness to car buyers, and its high sticker price.

GM and others have been touting the "plug-in" Volt as a game-changer for so long that, Ewanick suspects, some Americans may already be wary of it. After all, the vast majority of vehicle owners are more than satisfied with conventional powertrains. Even hybrids' market share is only about 3 percent.

"We've got a lot of education to do with Volt because it's a whole new category of vehicle," Ewanick says. "We want to show that it's more 'car' than 'electric.' And that we've got everything, in an electric vehicle, that you require for the average human being."

Expect Volt's marketing to make direct or indirect references to so-called "range anxiety" that consumers may feel about relying on battery power.

While the new Nissan Leaf is electric-only and will offer only a very limited range, up to 100 miles, Volt has an electric-only range of about 40 miles but also carries a gasoline-powered electric generator capable of extending the range of the Volt an additional 300 miles. This should assure consumers, among other things, that they won't be stranded when the battery's initial charge is depleted.

Early Adopters

"Until there's a robust infrastructure" for all-electric cars, Ewanick says, there will be Volt, which "won't ask the average person to make huge compromises in their lifestyle." However, he says, "there is a hard-core group that will be first buyers" of all-electric vehicles and put up with potential inconveniences.

Ewanick also notes that GM is the only mainstream automaker that already has fielded an all-electric vehicle, the abortive EV-1, more than a decade ago. "We've been here before," he says. "We have first-hand experience with what the issues are."

One of those issues remains cost. GM has said that Volt's sticker price initially will start at around $41,000, which can be reduced by a federal tax credit to $33,500. It will be $8,220 higher than that of Leaf.

But GM executives have been saying all along that Volt's cost - and that of future vehicles based on its Voltec technology - will come down as volume expands and the company begins manufacturing.

"Once consumers begin to understand and as we build that awareness, demand will be greater than we now imagine," Ewanick believes. "Once that happens, it'll bring costs down."

Scott Doggett:  is an AutoObserver.com Associate Editor.