True test of the red faith - Holden Volt

[Poetic Justice]

So I was browsing around Carpoint earlier, and came across an article covering the presence of Hybrid/electric vehicles in Australia.

Now I knew the Holdent Volt was coming. As a Toyota sales manager, I understand how hard it is to 'sell' Hybrid and Electric technology. Toyota have been doing it for years, and whilst it is becoming easier than in the past, it is still difficult.

Read here for a snippet on the Holden Volt:

Originally Posted by Carpoint

HOLDEN VOLT
If hybrid power does amount to a transitional technology, plug-ins (PHEV) sit further up the developmental curve. But just what is a ‘plug-in hybrid’? Beyond Toyota’s conservative interpretation in the plug-in Prius, there are almost as many iterations as there are companies making them.

Several big names are going down the REEV (range-extended electric vehicle) path. That is, an EV with an internal combustion engine that only ever drives a generator to keep the battery topped up. The logic is simple: spinning a small generator uses a lot less fuel than spinning four wheels laden with 1.5 tonnes of car.

The best known of the REEV breed is Holden’s Volt. Its so-called ‘Voltec’ drivetrain uses three powerplants: a front-mounted 111kW electric-drive motor does the heavy lifting; a secondary motor-cum-generator shifts between helping out with traction and generator duties; and a 1.4-litre petrol engine runs the generator.

When the engine management system detects battery levels dropping, it boots up the 63kW 1.4-litre petrol engine to run the generator, which itself produces up to 54kW to top up the 16.5kW/h lithium ion battery pack. The petrol engine plays no direct part in driving the car.

Built on the Cruze platform, and priced at $59,990, the Volt goes on sale in October. It packs a suitably premium list of kit including: eight airbags, forward collision alert, lane departure warning, 17-inch alloys, daytime running lights, a seven-inch touch screen with sat-nav and a rear-view camera, quality audio with Bluetooth streaming, a 30GB hard drive and voice recognition.

Now, there was a time that the Toyota Prius was selling in the early $40k, and it was hard to justify the expense when clearly something similar in size (Corolla) is almost half the price. Obviously, it comes at a hard justification to be a greenie when it would take quite some time to save the difference in the fuel costs of the $20k price deficit.

Since then, the Prius has been repriced as a result of the Lexus CT200h coming into the market. It now sells for mid $30s, still dear, but far more realistic.

So then to suggest that the Holden Volt will sell for $59,990? Man there is a lot of vehicles out there you can buy for that money. Is this really a justifiable cost for the technology? I had a look on carsales to find a Lexus CT200h 2012 no km's at $43,888 drive away.

Sure it might have technology, but is it going to net you a far better result whilst still having a domestic rather than luxury badge?

As for the thread title, this is just one of those situations I look forward to seeing the Holden faithful by it simply because it's a Holden badge.