Archive for July 27th, 2010

General Motors today released pricing details for the hotly-anticipated Chevrolet Volt. The extended-range electric vehicle will go on sale with a manufacturer’s suggested retail price of $40,280 (before $720 destination charge). A federal tax incentive of $7,500 drops the price to $32,780.

The Volt comes well-equipped with a standard navigation system, Bluetooth hands-free phone system, Bose premium audio, and 5 years of complimentary OnStar coverage. The only options will be chrome wheels, three premium paint colors, a rear park assist feature, and heated leather seats.

But how does the Volt stack up against the Nissan Leaf, its closest rival in the zero emissions race?

Nissan made waves earlier this year when they announced that the all-electric Leaf would be priced at $32,780. Factor in the $7,500 federal tax incentive and the effective price plummets to a very reasonable $25,280, which Nissan points out is comparable to a well-equipped Toyota Prius hybrid.

Compare the Leaf to the Volt, however, and you’ll find that the Chevy commands a stunning $7,500 price premium over the Nissan.

GM’s new vice president of US marketing, Joel Ewanick is quick to point out that the Volt has something the all-electric Nissan doesn’t: an onboard generator that runs on gasoline and that can keep the car moving for an additional 300 miles after the initial 40-mile all-electric range is depleted. ”No other automaker offers an electrically driven vehicle that can be your everyday driver, to take you wherever, whenever.”

And while the Leaf’s driving range of 70-120 miles may not make it as road-trip-worthy as the Volt, the Leaf is eligible for an additional $5,000 state tax incentive for California residents. This expands the Nissan’s price advantage to $12,500 in what is sure to be a critical sales market for electrically-driven cars.

Consumers will ultimately decide if range anxiety – their fear of running out of electricity before they can find a charging station – is worth the extra $7,500 to $12,500. As some EV enthusiasts have already pointed out, the price difference would cover a lot of rental cars for those times when 70-120 miles just isn’t enough.

Further proof that Craigslist is the most awesome invention known to man: the online listing service has allowed a California teenager to drive a better car than I do.  Correction: a better car than I will ever hope to have in the foreseeable future.

Steven Ortiz, who is barely of driving age, is now cruising down the freeway in a Porsche Boxster. And no, he’s not a trust fund baby or a lottery winner. He just knows how to fully utilize the online community that is Craigslist.

It all started with an old cell phone which was traded for an iPod which was traded for a dirt bike and so on until Ortiz finally ended up with the 2000 model year Porsche.

That last sentence begs a few questions. How do you justify trading an iPod for a used cell phone? Better yet, how do you justify trading a dirt bike for an iPod?

Maybe it’s just this crazy, throw-away culture that we live in. Or maybe this was all a serious case of CUI: Craigslisting Under the Influence.

For his part, Steven says that trading up to the Boxster was no easy feat. “It takes a lot of time. A lot of patience,” he told Fred Roggin of The Filter. Ortiz thinks that in a down economy, people still want the thrill of a new purchase but they don’t have the money to make it happen. So they instead resort to bartering old stuff that they aren’t using anymore.

Congrats to Steven on the new Porsche. You can see his entire story in the video below: