PT BLOG
JVH comments on Parking News every day at PT Blog – log on at
www.parkingtoday.com. Each month, there are at least 40 other comments like these, posted daily.
If you go to the online edition of September 2011 Parking
Today, you will find all the “hot links”
below.And even more cur- rent comments by PT Editor JVH.
Only 125 Chevy Volts Sold in July (Posted Aug. 3)
The Volt just isn’t selling. Quoting from Mark Modica’s com-
mentary at the National Legal and Policy Center: The Chevy Volt will not be a big seller for GM; the car
just doesn’t offer enough value to get a large part of the pop- ulation to purchase one. The few consumers that choose to purchase seem to be satisfied with their decision – that’s great. That doesn’t mean that sales are going to take off just becauseGMwill build them at a faster pace. I have to believe that GM knows this. I just can’t figure out why they continue to play out the hoax that the Volt is going to be a blockbuster for the company. Perhaps they will sell a bunch to the Obama administration (at a cost to taxpayers) and to GE (headed by Obama crony Jeff Immelt), but beyond that, there will not be huge demand. Remember, the Volt is the one that makes sense, if any of these do. The Volt has an engine and doesn’t need to be charged every 40
or 80 miles. It has tremendous range. The Leaf, from Nissan, is the one that will need those charging stations. The Leaf sold 931 in July – most probably because it is fully electric, and the draw for this type of vehicle is just that. There are people who want a fully electric car just because it is. If you want good mileage and still want size, why not buy a
hybrid and get on with it. Paying an additional, what, $7,000 for a Volt makes no sense. I’m told the Volt is a great car and has a lot of neat features, but that extra price tag, particularly at a time of eco- nomic stress, makes the decision to buy one difficult. The commentary points out thatGMis ramping up production
to meet demand, but Modica actually called dealers in a 75-mile radius of his home and found Volts available for sale on every lot. So to say that the reason the Volts weren’t selling was that they weren’t available might be a stretch. Strange, Nissan is surviving and selling without the U.S. gov- ernment’s help; however, GM cannot.
Speaking of Doug (Posted Aug. 3) Doug Holmes, who recently retired as Director of Transporta-
tion etc. at Penn State, is still working there, at least temporarily. He tells me that they asked him to stay on, on an emergency basis, because they had some issues they needed him to solve. Doug bleeds parking and says he wants to stay in the industry. Here’s an ex-IPI Board Chairman and the retired head of a major university parking
Continued on Page 38
See us at the NPA booth #424
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