Written by Philip Proefrock on 27/07/10
The unusual electric car concept that we started following a few years ago is now close to arriving at auto dealerships as the 2011 Chevy Volt. And today, Chevrolet announced the manufacturer’s suggested retail price for the Volt will be $41,000. With the full $7,500 federal tax credit, the price comes down to $33,500, and even lower with additional state incentives.
Nissan has tried to position itself as the competitor to GM with its all-electric Leaf, and that is playing out in a number of ways. While the list price of the Volt is several thousand dollars more than the Nissan Leaf, both vehicles will be available for lease at almost identical cost: $350/month for the Volt or $349/month for the Leaf.
Furthermore, on the same day that GM announced the pricing for the Volt, Nissan fired back with an announcement that it, too, would offer a warranty similar to the eight year, 100,000 mile warranty GM has announced for the Volt’s battery systems.
The initial markets selected by each company are also interesting to compare: Nissanplans to roll out the Leaf in Texas and Hawaii in January of 2011, then in North Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Virginia, Maryland, South Carolina, Alabama and Washington, D.C., in April 2011 and eventually nationwide by the end of that year. None of these are particularly cold-weather states. The Volt will initially be available in California, New York, Washington, D.C., Texas, Michigan, Connecticut and New Jersey in late 2010, and will be expanded into nationwide availability (as well as to Canada) in the following 12 – 18 months.
This will be interesting to follow as both companies (as well both existing manufacturers and new startups with other electric vehicles and hybrids) push the industry further along in developing alternatives to simple internal combustion drive vehicles.
via ecogeek
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