GM offers big price cut on Chevy Volt

[Lugal Zaggesi]

41. Sure, new cars are expensive

and not everybody is in the market.

But for those that ARE, the average new car cost $31,087 in March 2013:
http://www.thecarconnection.com/news/1083364_average-transaction-prices-cross-31000-in-march-incentives-keep-declining

$27,495 (sure, after waiting for a $7,500 tax credit - but you probably won't buy the car with cash, will you ?) is actually less than the average new car. And the more Volts that are out there (43,101 have been sold so far), the more chance of picking up a used Volt (the battery is warrantied for 8 years/100,000 miles).

Anyway, the whole point of the Chevy Volt 1.0 was just to pay R&D costs for the Next Generation Volt, which is coming soon. $1.7 billion in Chevy Volt sales so far has done that nicely. The global li-ion automotive battery market is expanding exponentially (it is used in the batteries in the Chevy Spark, Nissan Leaf, Tesla Model S, Chevy Volt, Plug-in Prius, etc), which is leading to increased R&D on these batteries all over the world, e.g.:

http://www.extremetech.com/computing/153614-new-lithium-ion-battery-design-thats-2000-times-more-powerful-recharges-1000-times-faster

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=breakthrough-energy-dense-battery-uses-lithium-and-sulfur

http://www.cycleworld.com/2013/06/14/germans-claim-advances-in-lithium-ion-battery-technology/

http://gm-volt.com/2009/03/11/100-fold-lithium-ion-battery-breakthrough/

These batteries will definitely be smaller, more powerful, and cheaper soon - then plug-in vehicles will be ever more cost-effective, just in time for Peak Oil Mayhem.