Saturday, March 03, 2012

GM Can't Sell Volts Even As Gas Hits $4/Gallon

The bad news is yes, stations around here are now selling gas at the 4.00/gallon mark. That's not good for the economy but a market response to Obama's war on oil production and the many rounds of quantitative easing.

The bad news for GM, even with high gas prices, they're producing more Volts than the public wants to buy.

The Detroit Free Press: GM to pull plug on Volt production for 5 weeks

Even with gas prices climbing past $4 a gallon, General Motors plans to halt production of the Chevrolet Volt for another five weeks to keep inventories from swelling, the second extended shutdown since late December.

Production of the plug-in extended-range electric car will stop at the Detroit-Hamtramck plant from March 19 to April 23. Chevrolet sold 1,023 Volts in February, or more than twice the number of all-electric Nissan Leafs sold.

"Volt sales are increasing but we are currently at a point where we have to maintain inventory levels," said GM spokesman Chris Lee.

In February, hybrids and electric cars accounted for 3.2% of U.S. industry sales, up from just more than 2% for 2011, said Jessica Caldwell, senior analyst for Edmunds.com.

However, GM ended the month with a 154 days' supply of Volts, according to WardsAuto. That's more than twice the 60 days' supply considered adequate.
Read the rest of the article on how smart GM is to pause production because no one is buying the $40,000 car, even when the price drops to $32,500 after the federal tax credit for purchase.

It's expensive, short-ranged, immature technology that occasionally goes up in flames?

So now why is it again that Americans aren't buying them?

2 comments:

Expatriate Owl said...

Too bad that the Volts are not coins. Can you imagine the numismatic premium the Volt would command?

I WATCHED, O'SCROTUM,BIDEN,PANEUTERED.HILLARY CLINTON, GANG RAPING A FELLOW HOMOSEXUAL IN A CHICAGO BATH HOUSE,(HILLARY WAS TAKING PICTURES!!!) said...
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