Dear G.M. and Ms. Barra,
There is a perception issue that is hindering the adoption of plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles. Fortunately, it’s something GM can easily address. Here’s the problem:
Many males consider these great vehicles to be less than masculine (and that’s putting it lightly).
Those of us, secure in our masculinity, absolutely love the Volt and Bolt (well, maybe not the Bolt name…). We want a much more aggressive color palate available for these fabulous cars. We want rock star EVs. We want to make a bold statement. While we salute the fact that GM didn’t give the Volt or Bolt a frou-frou appearance, as many makers of alternative fuel vehicles have done, we just want you to take it up another notch and bury the competition. There is absolutely no reason the Nissan Leaf (other than price) should be considered in the same league with the Volt.
LET’S ROCK THIS JOINT!
Here are some suggestions:
- Synergy Green (like the 2010 Camaro) BTW: WHY is such a green Chevy not available in green?
- Orange Rock Metallic (like the Bolt currently offers)
- Red Hot (from the Camaro palette)
- Keep the new metallic blue. We love it!
- Perhaps an option of black wheels and mirrors (maybe even a black racing stripe…)
- Make sure you check the comments on this posting for suggestions from other Volt fans.
Click on image to see a larger version. Got another color suggestion? Comment on this post! Please retweet with the tag #MaryBarra #MEVJ #2016Volt @ChevyVolt @MyEVJourney
Colors and sports options are good, but give us a sports model with increased
power and suspension too. And please make a Voltec SUV that will give 50 miles range and GM will knock Tesla and Nissan right out of the EV limelight!! Thank you for inviting me to the premiere of the Volt and Bolt ( yes please change name) at the NAIAS, I enjoyed meeting your Marketing, Design and Powertrain people. A loyal GM customer, Tim Meehan
Now that Tesla the has given his patents away on better battery technology, please use the information to create more miles on the volt. mine only gets me 39 kilometers in the cold up here in Canada
Secondly ….with this new technology,and cleaner for our world environment, and after the oil terrorist kicked American car company’s in the face before the government bailed you all out.. now that we know who our friends are” why don’t we move forward and dry up there resources, ? and make the world a cleaner more affordable, America….your all electric vehicle looks family nice, but what are you going to have for younger sportier all electric?…just a thought…..imagine if you took Tesla better battery technology and created a all electric corvette ? that car would me amazing…California dreaming:)
Would keeping the battery warm improve the Volt’s range in cold weather? That shouldn’t be hard to do.
What’s that about the “oil terrorist” kicking American car companies?
What can you Canadians do to stop tar sands development?
Buzz, is there someone besides your jackass neighbor who thinks the Volt is for sissies? Stupid people won’t change.
I have no problem with more color choices, but didn’t GM have a problem with peeling paint years ago–which they refused to do anything about? Better to have fewer choices and good paint.
There is a much bigger sales problem than insecure, ignorant Texas redneck blowhards.
There are many, many more people who are afraid to buy GM products because of all the poor quality products GM put out for decades. That’s the problem Barra needs to address. First of all, APOLOGIZE, and then explain how the corporate rip-off culture changed and who changed it? Lastly, PROMISE to make quality products and STAND BEHIND THAT PROMISE.
There is indeed a perception issue that is hindering the adoption of the Volt.
Here it is: GM is perceived as the #1 Most Hated Company in America. The story is on the Huffington Post.
Killing 42 people with bad ignition switches and keeping it all a secret since 2001 despite the fact that a replacement switch only cost 90 cents didn’t help GM’s already horrible reputation.
Gosh, I can think of a lot of other companies to dislike, say any oil company (especially BP), Koch Industries, Nestle. Did I mention the oil industry?
I would vote for BP too.
GM touched more people’s lives, in a negative way, than BP and the other companies you mentioned evidently.
I would beg to disagree. BP’s oil platform fire and collapse devastated tens of thousands of people’s businesses. Thing of all the shrimping boats, fishermen, hotels, restaurants, resorts…
Do more ADVERTISING!
And although it will be hard for many people to agree with this, “Fight fire with fire” and advertise on Fox News. These idiots helped swing people away from not just the Volt but EVs in general. If GM produced TV commercials (not ones with space aliens or the young woman Volt owner who could NOT remember where the gas cap was on her Volt) and showed some of us “southerners” who actually owned Volt and have discovered and proven they work so well for “red necks” and “country bumpkins” it might actually turn the tide on acceptance. Why advertise the Volt in San Francisco and other markets where people already embrace them? That’s throwing money away, but to change attitudes you have to “THROUGH SOME CHANGE” at the ignorant, the doubtful, the resistant. From Central Texas right straight north to Canada is a large “dead zone” in which I live and my two Volts have performed much better than GM ever claimed they might. Out here in the sticks, where we don’t have rush hour traffic, don’t have much in the way of stop and go energy wasting roads, the Volt performs better than what “city slickers” can ever realize, and few people in the sticks understand this.
Have some TV spots showing Volt owners passing by farms and in rural areas where a lot of us fly the flag, then for us baby boomers out here in the sticks, run the old Dinah Shore audio “See the USA in your Chevrolet” and tug at those old emotions we all can relate to… and run that on Fox News. And although the number two owner of Fox News is a Saudi Oil Barron named Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, I believe strongly a Volt can be “number one” out here in rural America with people who have been influenced by what they have seen on “conservative” media outlets (and a “mess” of us are conservatives who own Volts and can think “outside the Fox.”)
How about a commercial that says, “Fill up” for the equivalent of $1 a gallon? Rednecks like to save money so they can buy more corn squeezin’s.
Actually, I drove my first 2012 Volt “Dusty” 27,000 miles in 27 months and I basically discovered this…
In high school I worked my tail off mowing yards and working at a gas station. I saved all my money and when I was a senior, I ordered a 1970 Camaro. Back then, about $4 in gas (at 37 cents per gallon in those days) would get my Camaro down the road about 100 miles. Fast forward to “now” and I obviously am no longer a senior in high school but a “senior” citizen and with my 2012 Volt and now my 2015 Volt “Dusty Too” these days, about $4 in electricity gets my Volt down the road about 100 miles. It’s like Yogi Berra used to say “Deja Vu all over again” and despite the fact that gasoline in my area here in Texas can be found for about $1.80 per gallon, few people in my neck of the woods have any idea that a Volt is not only economical to drive, but comfortable and fun at the same time. And none of this has been nor is being told in any marketing/advertising that I’ve seen, in the three years that I have been a “Voltarian”.
Both of my Volts are a lot more fun to drive than both of the Camaros I had in my youth, as well as a Datsun 240-Z I had. Even a Honda CX-500 motorcycle I owned (first guy in Texas to own one when they became available) got me down the road might fast and probably got about 50 miles per gallon, can’t compare to the fun I have in my Volt, and probably the Volt is still less expensive to drive than nearly anything out there but a Moped.
More fun than a 70 Camaro and a 240Z? High praise indeed.
GM should hire you to do the commercials.
The marketing of the Volt has been such a flop. Sad.