Chevy marketing chief Chris Perry introducing the 2013 Impala at the NY Auto Show.
An explosion at the General Motors battery lab is unlikely to have any impact on the newfound sales momentum of the Chevrolet Volt, contended the brand’s marketing chief.
The maker certainly has to hope so, considering the brief setback in sales that followed word of several fires involving Volt batteries following federal crash tests last year. Demand for the plug-in hybrid slumped sharply during the first two months of this year – though sales rebounded in March as U.S. fuel prices soared towards record levels.
“They weren’t even testing a Volt battery,” said Chris Perry, vice president of global marketing for Chevrolet, during an appearance at a charity event in Detroit.
GM appeared to have turned the corner with Volt in March when sales rose to 50% more than their previous peak due to a push to fill the pipeline to dealers across the country. But last week’s explosion, which injured six employees – sending one to the hospital – has once again raised issues about
the dangers inherent in lithium-ion batteries.
GM has tried to downplay the incident, noting that the explosion involved an advanced battery that will go into a future product, not the Volt. Engineers were running extreme stress tests at the time, hoping to find the limits of the new battery’s chemistry.
So far, the headlines have not echoed the breathless coverage that followed the original Volt battery fires. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration briefly launched an investigation into the Volt but quickly dropped it when it became apparent the primary problem was errors in the agency’s testing procedures. GM, nonetheless, announced a redesign of the Volt system to further reduce the likelihood of a fire following even a severe vehicle crash.
Volt appears to be benefiting from the run-up in fuel prices. But so are other Chevy models, Perry noted, particularly the Cruze, the Malibu and the Sonic models.
“They’ve been very strong,” Perry said, hinting that demand in April again looked solid.
GM also is preparing to roll out a brand new series of Chevrolet pickup trucks at the end of the year, with an emphasis on higher-mileage powertrains. Arch-rival Ford has been scoring significant gains with a pair of V-6 engines that now account for more than 50% of the demand for that maker’s F-Series line.
Meanwhile, Chevrolet has announced plans to phase out the Chevrolet Avalanche as it begin the introduction of the new trucks. Sales of Avalanche had tailed off in recent years as the popularity of so-called personal use trucks went into decline in the face of the increase in the pump price of gasoline.
(For more on the final plans for the Chevy Avalanche, Click Here.)
Perry also said GM’s emphasis on Chevrolet was not complicating the automaker’s effort to turnaround Opel, which has suffered as the European economy has stalled. GM chairman and chief executive officer
Dan Akerson has said GM intends to turn around Opel’s fortunes this year.
However, partisans of the German brand suggest Opel’s way forward has been hampered by GM’s efforts to turn Chevrolet into its lead global brand. For a number of years, that had been Opel’s role.
Chevrolet’s global expansion has hampered Opel’s effort to build sales in emerging markets, particularly in Eastern Europe near Adam Opel AG’s traditional manufacturing base in Germany. The Opel-Chevrolet rivalry appears particularly acute in Russia.
Perry, however, insisted there is room for both brands in GM’s global lineup. “Chevrolet is an iconic American brand that is being sold globally,” he said. Opel is a European brand with its own distinct character.
And while Chevrolet might cover a wide range of products and segments in the U.S., officials stress, it is primarily targeting the entry and lower market niches in Europe, underneath the traditional positioning of Opel.
“They’re in different swim lanes. They’re not competing,” Perry said.