GM Looks to Cut Price of Next-Generation Volt by $7,500

GM Looks to Cut Price of Next-Generation Volt by $7,500

Folks willing to wait for the next generation of General Motors' Chevrolet Volt may be in for a 17% discount.

Between the economies of scale associated with expanding production of GM's first plug-in hybrid-electric vehicle and the potential to employ a smaller battery that would be used closer to its power capacity than it is now, GM is looking to cut the price of the $41,000 Volt by about $7,500 for the car's next generation, GM-Volt.com blog reported.

With such a price reduction, the Volt would likely be priced at less than $30,000 when factoring in federal tax incentives, making the car more price-competitive with many conventional vehicles and keeping it priced closer to the $32,780 sticker price of Nissan's battery-electric Leaf.

GM spokesman Robert Peterson reiterated the company's longstanding stance that the Volt's price would drop with time, but he declined to say how much savings could be realized.

"As with any new technology - from plasma TVs to cell phones - the production costs lower with learnings gained with each generation," Peterson said. "We expect to see similar cost savings, either through the development or improvement of technologies, or reduced production costs."

Such economies of scale is what GM CEO Dan Akerson is trying to attain by reportedly setting a goal to triple the automaker's electric-drive-vehicle sales between 2012 and 2015 to at least 135,000 units a year in order to more rapidly cut electric-drive costs by spreading development over a larger volume of vehicles, Bloomberg News reported in December.

GM sold 321 Chevrolet Volts in January, compared to the 326 it sold in December and the 87 Nissan Leafs sold in the U.S. last month. The automaker plans to build 25,000 Volts this year and another 120,000 in 2012.

The company also said last month that it collected the names of almost 250,000 people who say they are interested in the Volt.

Danny King, Contributor

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