For the last two years GM has given mixed signals about what the Chevy Volt will cost when it goes on sale later this year. I've heard everything from $35,000 to $45,000, but recently the rumors have settled on a $40,000 price tag. Even so, GM hasn't said a peep about the price in several months, leading many to wonder what they're waiting for. This is especially perplexing because GM had once said they would announce Volt pricing in May.

It could be that Nissan stole their thunder by setting the LEAF price at $33,000 and they are just waiting to give themselves a little more separation from that announcement. After all, if the Volt comes in at $40K, it could be exceedingly hard to market it when up against the competition.

Yeah, okay, so the LEAF is a pure battery electric and the Volt is a plug-in hybrid (or extended range electric, you choose)... different platforms for different purposes, as the argument goes. But that doesn't get around the inevitable comparison that's going to be made when consumers and media are on the prowl.

So I wonder if GM is feverishly trying to figure out just how they can lower the Volt's price without completely undercutting their base costs for the first 5 years of production. If comments from Micky Bly, director of electric vehicle programs at GM, at the Green Car Conference last week are any indication, GM may be waiting until the last minute to announce pricing because they are hoping that supplier pricing will come down even more.

“We’re seeing significant downward cost pressure on these suppliers,” said Bly in a Detroit Bureau article, adding that already EV component costs are coming down at a rate 3-5 years faster than GM had predicted but that there's still much work to be done to make the vehicles cost competitive without government subsidies.

Maybe suppliers prices are dropping so fast that GM thinks they can squeeze another few hundred bucks out of the Volt's final price before they announce it? Either way, in my mind they'll have to get it to within a few thousand of the Nissan LEAF's $33K to make the added value of the range extender worth it.

Reprinted with permission from Gas 2.0