Although the reviews came in buzzing, even from our very own Agent 001, the 2011 Chevrolet Volt's sales haven't been all that electric -- pun intended.
Sure you can blame it on not being for sale in all 50 states, but still it seems there may have been some serious oversight when it came to positioning the Volt.
First off, we already know it is likely the most advanced vehicle ever produced. With its giant heaping of technology and an enormous amount of research and development put into the Volt -- obviously at great expense -- this only meant one thing: this puppy was going to cost a pretty penny.
So when it rolled into dealers at the $40,000 mark -- with rumblings it was going to cost more -- it probably caught a lot of consumers off guard. Given the amount of R&D put into the car, something tells me that GM would have liked to earn a larger margin on this vehicle.
With that said, why wasn't the Cadillac Converj a reality? Think: GM could have positioned Cadillac as an innovator over other luxury marques, like Audi, BMW, Lexus, Mercedes-Benz and the ilk. AND it would have a helluva halo product that could spawn more electric siblings, like the Volt. Not to mention it could have commanded a larger margin.
At least if sales weren't significant there would be a variety of reasons to blame it on:
1) The car was overpriced
2) The luxury market wasn't ready for EVs
3) etc., etc.
Even better, it would have been less noticeable to outside observers that it wasn't doing so hot.
Taking ALL of this into consideration, we're a little interested: should the Chevrolet Volt have been a Cadillac?