Quote:
Originally Posted by Butz
A higher end Volt for those who don't want a Chevy? Why not?
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A "higher-end" volt? In my opinion, GM sent the wrong message by making the volt a Chevy in the first place. That message was - "everyman's car". While the Volt may someday get there, volumes for the first 5 years seem better suited to Cadillac. Paying $40K for a delta-sized vehicle, quiet cruising without ICE, the luxury of never having to go to a gas station, the leading edge technology - these all seem more consistent with Cadillac's image. I don't think it cheapens Cadillac's image, but reinforces it.
The way GM went about this, it's clear that the car was meant to burnish GM's image at the expense of Chevy's brand identity. Basically to sell people on the idea that GM was single handedly taking the automobile out of the environmental discussion. If it were my company, I'd have started the car at Cadillac, and then moved it to Chevy when the volumes made sense. The advantages are plenty -
Caddy has a smaller dealer body to train, and are more likely to already have mailing lists of high-income customers who are more likely to buy the first few years anyway. In my mind, the Volt should offer -
Special attention to customers - buying a car so different, they should be treated as special
Training/ Familiarization - more than the 15 minute deal you get with a normal car
Closer customer relationship to get early warnings back to HQ
Cadillac is more likely to get a "high tech" image boost from the Volt than Chevy is. What with all the Korean made pushrods that make up the rest of Chevy's fleet (sarcasm).