Chevy Volt Fleet Owners Getting Awful MPG

The Chevy Volt is as much of an electric car as you want to be, and some Volt enthusiasts have gone more than 2,300 miles on a single gallon of gasoline. Yet a new report suggests that some other Chevy Volts, most notably those owned by private and/or public vehicle fleets, aren’t doing much electric driving.

Green Car Reports recently followed up on a report by InsideEVs to see why a big batch of high-mileage Chevy Volts had such low average MPG numbers. The problem it seems is that fleet managers aren’t incentivizing efficient driving, and until they do, we can only expect more of the same.

Many fleets operate by paying drivers on a per-mile basis. People who drive a lot for a living are then compensated on cumulative gasoline costs…but they aren’t recouped for the much-lower costs incurred by plugging into an outlet or charging station. The result is that many fleets of Chevy Volts are coming in with an average of between 34 and 39 MPG, whereas many non-fleet owners regular achieve over 450 miles to a gallon of gas, as long as they recharge regularly. The savings add up too; to charge a Chevy Volt costs about $1.50 in electricity, and it nominally covers the cost of a gallon of gasoline, which depending on where you live is between $3.00 and $4.00 a gallon.

How can we change this? That’s a sticky question, as people still need to feel fairly compensated for the costs of driving. One suggestion would be to offer a substantial “savings bonus” to whomever used the least amount of fuel in a given time period. The bonus would have to be large enough to incentivize people to go a little bit out of their way to find EV charging stations or other places to plug in, but the cost savings to the parent company could be huge. It’s just a matter of incentivizing employees to do the right thing.

Source: Gas 2.

Hybrid Sales War: Ford Fusion Outsells Chevy Volt in June

The battle for plug-in hybrid supremacy has been heating up month after month, but June saw – for the first time – the Ford Fusion Energi PHEV take the sales crown from the Toyota Prius/Chevy Volt powerhouses. It was a surprise, for sure – but, the more I looked at it, the less surprising that seemed.

Consider that Ford’s Fusion is not only a good-looking hybrid, but a good-looking car, rife with styling influences from Jaguar and Aston Martin (both former Ford properties). Add to that the fact that Ford’s Fusion is a larger, roomier hybrid than Chevy’s Volt – and that it’s about the same price! – and maybe you, too, can start to see what people see in the thing.

One more Fusion bonus: it doesn’t shout “Hybrid!”

As far as the numbers go, the Ford Fusion chalked up 1,939 deliveries and beat out the consistent-selling “competition” at GM, which sold just 1,777 Chevy Volts – despite drastic discounts at dealers in key markets like California and Florida.

So, does this mean that Ford’s hybrid star is on the rise, or is this just a result of Chevy Volt and Toyota hybrid shoppers holding out until the all-new 2016 Chevy Volt and Toyota Prius models arrive? Let us know what you think in the comments, below.

Source: Green Car Reports.

Cadillac Has A Lot To Learn From Tesla

In a recent interview with AdAge, Cadillac CMO Uwe Eillinghaus remains unapologetic regarding the controversial “Poolside” commercial starring the Cadillac ELR. And while he’s also an admitted proponent of vehicle electrification it’ll take a lot more than than a tarted-up Chevy Volt and a controversial commercial for Cadillac to compete with Tesla.

On Tesla, Ellinghaus said;

“Tesla teaches us a message: If you offer cars with an electric drive-train that have superb driving characteristics and a beautiful [interior], they find customers. What doesn’t work is to position a car for people who are tree-huggers and green-wash an entire brand.”

Gee, you mean all it takes to find customers is to build a great car? YOU DON’T SAY!

While I don’t necessarily disagree with Ellinghaus’s sentiment, though he seems to be missing a major point. The Tesla Model S appeals to both treehuggers and luxury car buyers, which is what has made it such a huge success. The polarizing “Poolside” commercial did the ELR no favors with the green crowd, espousing the virtues of hard workwhile deriding Europeans for taking a month off from work each year. As though spending quality time with your family is somehow wrong.

Meanwhile, Elon Musk is ready to offer free Supercharging stations powered by the sun to Tesla customers. That’s value and environmentalism, a one-two punch that has put Tesla on top in very short order. Tesla didn’t “greenwash” its entire brand, and neither is BMW by offering the i3 and i8 electric vehicles. Offering one hybrid does not a green brand make.

With less than 300 Cadillac ELRs sold through the end of May, Tesla has little to worry about from Uwe and the Cadillac brand, at least for now. While some ELR owners seem happy with their Chevy Volt-based hybrids, many dealerships are having to offer huge discounts to move the ELR off of lots. The ELR will not compete with the Tesla Model S in its current form.

The next-generation ELR, however, could prove to be a viable Tesla competitor if rumors of more range and more room are true. But this brings me to my next point; Cadillac is a brand obsessed with copying the success of other brands, and not just Tesla.

The Cadillac ATS was built to compete directly with the BMW 3-Series, even going so far as to do much of its testing on Germany’s Nurburgring. The Cadillac ELR was priced to compete with the Tesla Model S, even though it’s in no way a comparable car. How about an idea that is unique Cadillac, instead of a poorly-conceived (though well-executed) copy?

If Ellinghaus wants to embrace conservatism and relentless work ethic, then by all means that’s what Cadillac should do. But if they want to go after the Tesla crowd, they’ll need to temper their rhetoric with some good old fashioned tree-hugging. The reason the Tesla Model S is so appealing is that it’s a great car that also happens to be green, and Tesla anchors the Model S on both fronts. The Cadillac ELR is an OK car with green credentials that are never even mentioned. The only thing the two have in common is a price point, and nearly every publication agrees that the ELR is overpriced by tens of thousands of dollars.

I do think Cadillac can build a Tesla Model S competitor, but it will have to be a purpose-built electric or hybrid car, and not a thrice-worked-over Chevy Cruze.

Source: Cadillac/GM