General Motors Co., working on the next generation of the Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid, is aiming to improve the electric-only range of the car by at least 20 percent, CEO Dan Akerson says.
The first-generation Volt, which was introduced in 2010, can travel an estimated 38 miles on battery power before a gasoline engine engages. While that exceeds the Ford Motor Co.'s Fusion Energi plug-in hybrid's 21-mile range, Akerson wants more.
"We hope to extend that significantly," Akerson told Bloomberg Radio this week. "For something to be significant to me, I've got to get at least a 20 percent improvement in performance. If we can get it up to 50, 60 miles or more, we will, but that's going to be another three to four years out."
Volt is GM's flagship car for its efforts to have about 500,000 vehicles on the road by 2017 with some form of electrification. Its sales have been disappointing, and GM announced Tuesday that it's lowering the starting price of the 2014 model by $5,000 to compete against the less-expensive Toyota Prius hybrid and Nissan Leaf electric car.
The price was cut, in part, to make sure the Volt shows up in online shopping searches along with the Prius and Leaf, Detroit-based GM said. The Toyota starts at $25,010 and the Nissan starts at $29,650, including destination fees.
Some of the reduction was because the cost of components decreased, Akerson said.
"We said from the outset that the largest cost of electric cars is the battery," he said. "When I came in three, four years ago, they were selling close to $800 per kilowatt-hour on a battery and that number has continued to drop."
While Volt sales in the U.S. rose 9.2 percent through July, deliveries slipped 3.3 percent last month. That followed a 53 percent gain in June when the average cost of incentives per Volt was $6,195, according to Edmunds.com, citing the most recent month with available data.
Leaf sales accelerated this year after Nissan Motor Co. in January added an S version of the Leaf that's cheaper than the SV and SL models. Unlike the Volt, the Leaf has no onboard engine to extend the vehicle's range.
Original Print Headline: Next Volt to see more range
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