Nope. I stand by my statement
Nope. I stand by my statement. I think that GM is making a real mistake cutting the Volt now, and I believe that many manufacturers will be offering PHEVs for several years to come, with many of them transitioning their normal hybrid offerings to PHEVs. I think that there will still be new PHEVs sold 10 years from now because there is a large group of buyers who want the security of having a gasoline backup for roughly unlimited driving range. The Volt was selling well in it's compact car market, but I think that GM will be soon releasing several BEV models, and seeing that their federal EV subsidies are nearing the end I think that they killed the Volt early to be able to announce the release of new BEV models with the full EV subsidies (+/- $10,000 cheaper) to insure early sales success. Most likely though the new GM BEVs will be built in China or Mexico, which is going to anger a great many Americans who are still upset over having to bail GM out a few years ago (because of making similar poor corporate decisions). So even though I am pleased that GM is jumping ahead with their move to BEVs (although they have not formally announced that this is the reason for killing the Volt and closing the Ohio factories) the choice was poorly timed. I heard that Tesla is looking to possibly buy the closed GM factories for production of their BEVs, but that would be a double-blow for GM getting bad press for the Ohio shut downs, and also enabling Tesla to grow just when GM is looking to seriously expand into BEV models of their own. The smartest move for GM would be to announce the move to BEV production ASAP and build them in the Ohio plants, but I suspect that they have already done preparations to build their upcoming BEVs overseas a long time ago, and reversing those plans now would delay their expansion into the BEV market for several (critical) years, while their competitors take over the expanding market. Ford and Chrysler are too quiet on their plans for BEV transition as well, which is disturbing.