Chevrolet has taken to social media to announce the launch of the new plug-in hybrid Volt – which will be revealed at the Detroit Motor Show in January 2015.
Like so many car makers these days (remember Ford Australia’s drip feed of the Falcon XR8), General Motors teased the new Chevrolet Volt on social media – announcing the next-generation model would be shown at the Detroit Motor Show in January 2015.
Indeed, while it released no technical details about the Volt, global Chevrolet chief marketing officer Tim Mahoney said social media would form the backbone of the promotion strategy for the Volt when the new model arrives in 2015, nor will it be a mainstream model, he said at an industry seminar last week.
He told trade journal Automotive News that GM would “fish where the fish are” and use existing Volt owners as “evangelists” to explain how the vehicle works and encourage sales.
Mahoney also said the Volt is no longer being thought of as a mass-market vehicle. “It’s an impressive product in its design, performance and technology,” he said. “It’s a real halo for the brand. It’s done a tremendous amount to conquest new buyers, and they have [high] incomes like Corvette buyers. Customer satisfaction is through the roof.
“But the reality is that there’s a finite market for Volt, and it’s geographical. California is the epicenter; it’s not about selling Volt in Oklahoma. And we’ve gotten smarter about deploying resources for the vehicle.
“There’s a Northeast and West Coast market for Volt, and there’s nothing wrong with that,” Mahoney continued. “That’s the beauty of having a broad portfolio of products. But it’s not a mass-market” vehicle.
According the Chevrolet figures, Volt owners are driving more than 63% of their overall drive in electric vehicle mode, collectively logging more than 800 million fuel-free kilometres since the Volt’s retail debut in 2010. The brand also claims that Volt owners who charge regularly typically drive more than 1552 kilometres between fill-ups and visit the petrol station less than once a month.
If you own a Volt, or know someone who does, we’d love to know if the above sounds ‘about right’, let us know in the comments below. We’d also like to hear from those who own a Mitsubishi Oultander PHEV for comparison.
