 General Motors could be losing as much at $49,000 on every Chevrolet Volt it sells, a new report finds. The estimated losses stem from the Volt's high development costs as well as expensive components.
GM has never publicly stated how much it actually costs to build the Volt – including development costs – but Reuters recently surveyed several industry experts to get a better picture of the dollars and cents behind the Volt program. The findings were a bit shocking, with Reuters reporting GM spends "at least" $75,000 to build each Volt.
And $75,000 was at the low end of the estimates. According to the four industry consultants interviewed by Reuters – some of which have worked for GM on the Volt project – it could cost the Detroit automaker upwards of $89,000 to build each Volt.
With a starting price of $39,995, that means that GM could be losing as much as $49,000 for every Volt sold.
GM responded to the Reuters report on Monday, calling the estimates “grossly wrong”. GM notes that Reuters simply looked at “product development costs across the number of Volts sold instead of allocating across the lifetime volume of the program, which is how business operates.”
However, GM has previously stated that it's “not making money yet" on the Volt, and low sales could prevent the car from being profitable anytime soon. GM sold a record-setting 2,831 Volts last month, netting a year-to-date total of 13,500 units. GM originally targeted 45,000 Volt sales in 2012, but retracted that forecast soon after.
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