Understatement: “”The fact that GM is now facing an oversupply of Volts suggests that consumer demand is just not that strong for these vehicles.”
USA Today reports:
eneral Motors is stopping production of the Chevy Volt and European sibling Opel Ampera for five weeks due to slow sales.
“Even with sales up in February over January, we are still seeking to align our production with demand,” said GM spokesman Chris Lee…
Without the intervention of the Democrats this abortion would never have been green lighted for production or subsidized to the Tune of $250K/each. It had a very short life span. I’m guessing that this thing never goes back into full production and within a couple of years has its plug pulled so to speak.
At least when the battery packs go out of production in a a few years and replacements are basically unavaiable at any price the car can still be operated exclusively on gasoline.
What does GM expect? When the Volt was first announced it was designed to have a generator connected to the 1.4L 4 banger to keep the batteries charged and ran permanently by the electric motor. Surprise, surprise! GM LIED about how the car was designed. When the battery ran down the 84HP engine drove the wheels of a 4000lb car. Try merging into traffic of your interstate highway with that power!
I can’t imagine why the Volt failed. No one could have seen this coming.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Design_by_committee
“The fact that GM is now facing an oversupply of Volts suggests that consumer demand is just not that strong for these vehicles,” comments Dr. Lacey Plache, chief economist for auto research site Edmunds.com. “The price premium on the Volt just doesn’t make economic sense for the average consumer when there are so many fuel-efficient gasoline-powered cars available, typically for thousands of dollars less.”
Dr. Plache, you are an idiot. It doesn’t make economic sense for a wealthy
consumer, either. My son’s Honda Civic was nearly $30,000 less. And gets
35-42 mpg. The only way GM is going to sell these stupid cars is to put
VOLT in all caps on the side. Front. Back. Top. ZERO EMISSIONS.
ELECTRIC. The purchase of a Volt can only be a STATEMENT. They make
no sense otherwise.