That article is from the beginning of August.

Volt Sales, 2011

July: 125
August: 302
September: 723
October: 1100

See a trend here? Production has been increasing every month since June, in which production was zero. Sales are following.

"Two of the five dealers even had two each in stock."

First off, 2 vehicles in stock is not much - people want choices, if nothing else, of paint color. Second, dealer markup is common which GM has little control over. You'll find that the dealers are charging OVER MSRP for Volts. Also, the Volt is only for sale in a little over half of the 50 states.

" The EV ranges were 31, 35 and 33 miles, for an average of 33 miles."

..Which is almost exactly what the EPA rating reflects.

Meanwhile, Jay Leno gets 11,000 miles out of half a tank of fuel. That's over 2000 MPG!!!
http://www.autoblog.com/2011/11/17/jay-leno-11-00...

Anecdotal evidence only goes so far. The Volt's fuel economy varies wildly based on driving habits, which is why the only meaningful metric is the EPA numbers.

"Shall we call that a baby step, and a mighty expensive one ($43k with charger) at that?"

The charger is optional. You can use a 120v socket with the included cord if its 20A rated, which most are in houses built since 1950.

"Sales of the $39,995 Chevrolet Volt increased 240 percent in September, from 302 units in August to 723. That brings the grand total of Volts sold since it entered production in late 2010 to approximately 4495."

Sales in October were 1,100. Production is increasing and sales are following. I'll happily eat my words if sales don't continue to follow the trend of increased supply.

If Obozo (really mature) is really "shutting coal and oil plants down" why don't we have nationwide rolling brownouts? Please show me some data that backs up your claim that he is reducing the country's total generation capacity.

"Now for my next engineering lesson, the concept in the field of Thermodynamics (I took classes in this moron) of a "Control Volume". To do a proper evaluation one needs to consider what passes across the surface i.e. the electricity HAS TO BE GENERATED BEFORE IT IS USED."

Since you understand Thermodynamics so well, I thought you would understand that since the Volt gets better fuel economy, it uses less energy. But lets break it down since that apparently went over your head.

The Volt battery uses 8 kilowatt hours to move the car 35 miles. This means each mile consumes 0.23 kilowatt hours. A Suburban, at 17 MPG and considering a gallon of gasoline has 33.7 kilowatt hours, uses 1.98 kilowatt hours per mile.

Even under gasoline power, the Volt still uses less than half the energy of the Suburban. Hence why its MPG rating is over twice as high. See what I did there? Might want to retake that class.

"THE VOLT DOES NOTHING TO ALLEVIATE THE CONSUMPTION OF OIL OR COAL IT ONLY SHIFTS THE USE."

Actually, since you asked, it increases the consumption of coal (since your Suburban doesn't run on coal) and reduces oil consumption by a much larger amount (since, as you stated, a lot of electricity is generated by coal, nuclear, and other sources.) Coal is a domestic resource. Oil comes from a variety of places, some not quite as friendly as others.

"Geeze, these kids are really, really stupid. Is it any wonder Volt sales are a meager 500 a month, less than the volume a slow plant produces in a single day with brainless customers like Spaghetti Brain? What do you think the plant does the rest of the month? Twiddle it's thumbs?"

The Volt shares an assembly line with the Buick Lucerne, just FYI it sold 1100 units October, not 500. Production has increases for three months, every increase followed by an increase in sales the following month. Since you are such an "expert in the field", I'm surprised you haven't noticed that the Volt is still supply constrained and that increased availability is resulting in increased sales.

"Out here it is $.44/Kw-h. As I said you really don't know anything PRACTICAL, all you do is spout stuff you read elsewhere."

0.12 kw/h is used as the government standard on <a href="http://www.fueleconomy.gov" target="_blank">www.fueleconomy.gov and happens to be the rate here in North Carolina. Really impractical using a government standard, I know. FYI, the average electricity rate countrywide is 0.13 kw/h.

"And if you can not grasp the concept of 1/2 the mass times the velocity squared being important in crash-worthiness studies (the government tests are not car-to-car they are car to barrier) you really are pretty ignorant, perhaps even stupid. A Suburban head on into a Volt would leave the Volt a pancake. End of discussion. "

Just how heavy does a car have to be to be considered "safe" to you? A 2000 4-door Explorer weighs 3900 lbs. A 2006 Crown Victoria weighs about the same, 3940 lbs. The Volt weighs 3780 lbs. Would you consider a Crown Vic a death trap because its a such a lightweight vehicle? Everyone should throw away their Explorers because they would die a fiery death in a crash with a Suburban? Anything less than a full size, body-on-frame SUV is unsafe to you?

"My point was about VALUE, if you think gas prices are more important than safety and comfort you obviously do not have young children. Or you are so self absorbed with your navel to ignore the PRACTICAL world around you. "

I thought the "THINK OF THE CHILDREN!" line was for Progressives to get new restrictions and laws passed. Didn't expect that one from you.

"But you chose to do that, because YOU KNEW BETTER THAN AN EXPERT IN THE FIELD."

If you weren't so busy foaming at the mouth, you might see past your own nose.

The Volt was being designed BEFORE Obama took office. If you have any ACTUAL evidence that Obama stronghanded the development of the Volt, please post it.

Try thinking for yourself, it works great.

If you're so sure, how about you post all of your "facts"?

Too much effort?

Maybe you are the one that should do some research, and I don't mean listening to a radio talk show host.

The batteries are assembled here by GM which is one step closer to making a sustainable infrastructure. The cells are made by LG in Korea.

You are implying there are going to be such drastic power shortages that you won't be able to plug in the Volt. You seriously believe this? Even if this WAS true, the design of the Volt makes the car still usable, unlike all of the other pure EVs on the market.

You are comparing a Suburban to a Volt and you think I'm the clueless one? Just because you know some acronyms that nobody cares about?

Here are some numbers for you, since words and reason go about five feet over your head. If you drive a Volt 20,000 miles a year, half on gasoline and half on electricity (which is generous given the statistics of most drivers) you consume 377 gallons of fuel, at $3.50 a gallon that is $1319 a year. Add in the cost to charge (10 kilowatt hours per charge at 0.12/Kw-h) and that becomes $1661.

You drive a Suburban for 20,000 miles @ 17 MPG (EPA numbers, not mine) and you spend $4117 a year on fuel. Saving $2456 a year on gasoline and cutting oil consumption from 1176 gallons to 377 gallons is what you call a "few real world MPGs"? And you say that I'm the clueless one?

The Volt got a perfect crash test score too, government and IIHS. http://www.iihs.org/ratings/ratingsbyseries.aspx?...

I know checking facts takes effort, but sometimes its worth it.

Again, since you're obviously brain dead - its hard to sell Volts when dealers don't have them. The Volt is still only for sale in 27 states, meaning 23 states haven't had access to a single vehicle to sell. Did you actually call any dealerships? Too much effort, I see.

"33MPG!!
What amazing technology!!
After the battery runs out, 25- 50 miles, (hope you dont live in the hills)
the Volt gets less MPGs than a VW Jetta. retail $23K"

Volt is rated at 37 MPG (combined) on gas alone. The Jetta you link to gets 34 MPG combined. EPA numbers. That obviously misses the point anyway, if you are driving the Volt on gas alone that defeats the purpose.

Nice try on the Accent too - it also gets 34 MPG combined, not 40. FYI, its braking, not breaking.

The Volt gets 93 MPGe, which means that on grid power its about three times as efficient as a Honda Civic. Even if 100% of that came from coal, that's a 3x reduction of fossil fuel usage and more importantly a 100% reduction in oil usage. At least coal is a domestic fuel source.

The excess energy required to move those batteries down the road? It still gets 93 MPGe - I fail to see you point. And I'd rather be paying money to produce batteries (which is a high growth sector and has lot of potential for exports and expansion here in the states) than to be buying fuel.

A political car? Political for whom? The concept was shown Sept 2008 before Obama even took office - this means the design started well before that.