GM, Volkswagen Say Goodbye to Hybrid Vehicles

Re:GM, Volkswagen Say Goodbye to Hybrid Vehicles by Nasrudith on Monday August 12, 2019 @01:09PM (#20677452)

Isn't that also a bit tautological given how fixed costs are divided over units produced? If they produced and sold more they would be cheaper. Of course that assumes they would sell well if they put more effort into doing so.

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Re:GM, Volkswagen Say Goodbye to Hybrid Vehicles by freehunter on Monday August 12, 2019 @01:33PM (#20677759)

That works if they're losing money due to not selling enough volume to recoup the startup costs. However if they're actually selling them for less money than they cost to make, every unit sold is just adding to the loss.

If it costs $1,000,000 to design a car and I sell that car for $30,000 and I sell 33 cars, I've lost $10k. But just selling one more car will turn a profit.

On the other hand if that car costs $32,000 to make and I'm selling it for $30,000... GM has long been in the business, for whatever reason, of selling cars below cost [1]. And for the Volt, it's more like selling a $40k car that actually costs $80k to manufacture [2], not even taking engineering and marketing costs as a factor.

Selling more Bolts and Volts would hurt GM, not help.

[1] https://www.hotcars.com/gm-admits-bolt-not-profitable/

[2] https://www.forbes.com/sites/michelinemaynard/2012/09/10/stu...

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Re:GM, Volkswagen Say Goodbye to Hybrid Vehicles by chrisbolt on Monday August 12, 2019 @02:48PM (#20678554)

> not even taking engineering and marketing costs as a factor.

It looks like engineering is included as "Development" in the original report: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-generalmotors-volt/factbo...

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Re:GM, Volkswagen Say Goodbye to Hybrid Vehicles by bilbo0s on Monday August 12, 2019 @01:23PM (#20677616)

>Of course that assumes they would sell well if they put more effort into doing so...

And there's the rub. People say they want these things, but when it comes time to open the pocketbook, their calculations change. Worst thing is that the people who can afford this stuff will instead drop more money on an ICE SUV.

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