The Chevrolet Volt is selling faster than expected, so General Motors plans to pump up production — a move that will require shutting down the production line for one month to make some improvements. The General says it will revamp the line at the Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly plant so it can increase Volt production to 16,000 units this year and 60,000 next year. That’s a significant bump over the original plan, which called for 15,000 cars this year and 45,000 next. The plan could add as many as 2,500 jobs at the plant, which also will produce the revamped 2013 Chevrolet Malibu. The factory currently produces the Volt, Buick Lucerne and Cadillac DTS. GM brass say the move, which will make finding a Chevrolet Volt tough through the summer, is needed to meet unexpected demand for the plug-in hybrid. It also accelerates the General’s plan to make the car available nationwide. “The Volt will be available to customers nationwide by the end of 2011,” said Cristi Landy, director of Chevrolet Volt marketing, said in a statement. “By taking the time to reconfigure the plant, we will be better able to meet the tremendous consumer demand.” The car’s already available in California, New York, Connecticut, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Texas, Virginia and Washington, D.C. You’ll see it in Europe, China and Canada by the end of this year. It made its debut in Japan on Wednesday. http://www.wired.com/autopia/2011/05/gm-amps-up-volt-production/
As a tax payer/partial GM owner, this pleases me. Right now this guy says we are exposed to about $11b of losses if the government sold GM today. Not great, but nothing like the initial $50b we might've lost if things went as bad as some predicted. It'll be interesting to see if we do sell GM this year to try to take it off the table during the presidential election and just take the loss, or if we choose instead to hold onto it for another year or two. Personally, I think once it looks stable enough to survive (if it isn't there already) we should dump the stock. Bailing out GM made sense to me when jobs and the economy were at risk. But I don't want to see it in government hands any longer than absolutely necessary.
Meanwhile the Alpha platform is crashing and burning. It was a mistake to bail out GM in the first place and even worse what our government did to the bondholders.
I think if there was an affordable electric or hybrid, a lot of people would buy it. They need to come out with a modern-day Model T equivalent. Something that everyone can afford. I would buy a hybrid if I could afford it. Gas is so damned expensive, I actually just went ahead and buy a commuter bike to ride to school and around my neighborhood.
2500 jobs? Are they trying to have more employees than cars they sell? http://www.autoblog.com/2011/05/03/sales-update-nissan-leaf-hits-573-chevy-volt-at-493-in-april/
yeah, I heard about that on the radio about the sales being that low...and they're shutting down to increase production?
Seems to indicate to me that they didn't make many, they sold out of them, and so are scrambling to make more. This article sheds more light: http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-20064361-54.html
You kind of cut off the article a little, so I'll finish it for you: It's a little dishonest to just pull one line from an article that otherwise doesn't seem to support the narrative at all that sales suck.
I'm comparing actual sales versus what they are speculating from their PR department. They have sold 50% of their inventory, and this is "better than expected" so they will ramp up production.
Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. For as much money put into this thing, it's underperforming the Edsel, and they have to offer huge rebates just to sell 50% of the low numbers of vehicles made. For comparison, in the year after the Prius was launched, one of my uncles took an airplane from Minneapolis to Seattle to pick up a Prius that he waited 3 months to receive in a shipyard, and then drove it back to Minnesota after it got detailed. GM is trying to put shine on an electric turd, and the Chevy Malibu is one of the top-selling business fleet cars, so of course they are going to also produce it at the "Volt" plant.
Hybrids and Electric cars are too fucking expensive. A 2011 Prius is going for a little over $22k according to Kelly Blue Book. A Nissan Leaf is going for $33,650 MSRP. A Chevy Volt is going for $41k MSRP. I mean... seriously? 41 thousand dollars? Are these people out of their fucking minds? That's twice what the Prius is going for. It's a damn car. I can buy a brand new Toyota Carolla for $16.5, or a mazda 2 for $14.5. Why would I spend 41k on an electric car? How long do I need to drive the car to make back my money? Most cars get a decent MPG these days, and I love the idea of not paying for gas, but these cars are ridiculously overpriced.
By the time this is a practical car, its going to be outdated technology. Early adopters always get hosed.
For some people, the joy of being the first on the block outweighs the economic inefficiency. Some people like to be early adopters. Some people like aluminum suitcases. Whatever turns your crank... barfo
It certainly helps to be rich if you want to be an early adopter. However, I know some early adopters that are not liberal. And I'm not an early adopter myself. barfo
