Posted on 03/03/2012 10:32:59 AM PST by Lazlo in PA
General Motors told 1,300 employees at its Detroit-Hamtramck factory that they were being “temporarily laid off” for five weeks as the company halts production of the Chevrolet Volt, the Detroit Free Press reports.
“Even with sales up in February over January, we are still seeking to align our production with demand,” said GM spokesman Chris Lee.
“We needed to maintain proper inventory and make sure that we continued to meet market demand,” he told The Hill in a phone interview.
(Excerpt) Read more at theblaze.com ...
So THAT is why production was halted, to bring capacity down to demand? ROTF!
Yeah, sales doubled from 3 to 6 units....
Last week they had 3 stories on the technical aspects of the up and coming Hybrid and "Energi" Ford Fusion.
They have to axe this Turkey before the Fusion comes out so they don't have to go mano-e-mano and then the Volt because it will look like a Trablant up against the Fusion.
Can't have that going into November with our "Dear Leader" being the Volt's biggest Cheerleader, he is going to have to fall in love with something else, and get it gone or he cooks his own goose.
Something smells rotten in Denmark.
Yeah right, they can't even give the car away.
Oh wait a minute...that's what they are attempting.
The question to ask everyone is Who do you know who can afford $40,000 for a new car? I wonder what the percentage is of Americans who are struggling to even afford their car payment?
A Voltage brownout?
I could have sworn I read something within the last week about how well the Volt was doing and I thought “another lie” ... and surprise, surprise, surprise /s .... it was.
“Yeah, sales doubled from 3 to 6 units.... “
Yep, . . . All given . . uh . . er . . uh sold to G.E..
Shocking, revolting, and potentially charged news for sure
Didn’t the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize just say the Dolt was awarded “The Car of the Year?”
Matching production to demand is the reason they laid everyone off.
What a bunch of amateurs...
Also from the Detroit Free Press, sales of the two other cars made at DHam last month:
Cadillac DTS, 68 cars, -95.5%
Buick Lucerne, 304 cars, -88.2%
Yeah the economy is picking up speed, down hill.
From a former car salesman..... When choosing a new car, the very first question you should ask nowadays is.....
Is the battery bigger than a breadbox? If the answer is yes, don’t buy it.
What the Hell kind of archaic attitude is that? Clearly we need a dictatorship of the proletariat at GM so outdated, non-progressive thinking like that can be relegated to the bottom of the swarf and oil barrel.
Yes, I wonder if their is an engineering issue that has not been revealed as of yet.
You mean other than the whole car is a complete lemon and a bust?
The only consolation is it will serve as an example, from now until the end of time, what mixing government with private industry produces.
A very expensive lesson that probably most suspected from the get go was a bad idea.
Why should we have learned a lesson the quasi-government failure that was Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.
Ford,too is probably happy that the Edsel and the Pinto are no longer the biggest zonker of all time.
There are several categories of people who might want buy one. These people are rich, and they value the coolness factor more than some insignificant pocket change to the tune of $40K.
However Hollywood is not that large. It appears that Volt sales saturated all the demand that ever was. Now Volt needs new buyers. But there are no other people in the country who have more money than brains.
From my own point of view, Volt has a future battery problem. We know that current hybrids, like Prius, are not dependent on the battery that much, and the battery in Prius is NiMH, and it lasts about 10 years. We also know that battery in Volt is Li-Ion, and those batteries don't last (anyone who owns a laptop knows that - two years and you need a new battery.)
Volt also has limited range. I live in hills, which means that if I buy Volt it will be struggling to return home. But even on a flat terrain 30-40 miles is not a sufficient range. I need 30 miles for a daily trip around the valley; if I go visit friends that turns into 60 miles. I may also need lights, heater, windshield wipers, radio, and all other power consumers that I'm sure are not counted in the advertised Volt's range.
Volt has a gas engine. However why in the world would I want to buy a gas car that also has an electric powertrain if it will be used only in the first hour of my trip? A gas engine of Prius, for example, is far better in terms of fuel efficiency because it's designed for that. A gas engine of Volt is a last-moment drop-in to solve the range problem. Also that auxiliary gas engine requires premium gas - which is not good news right now. Volt is designed to run the gas engine from time to time in order to circulate gasoline, so eventually all owners of Volt need to buy more of that premium gas.
All in all, this car doesn't even look like a good technical implementation. It's a shapeless pile of random things thrown together to do the job. As an engineer, I don't want Volt - it is simply not good enough for me to desire one.
Perhaps I'm driving too much, and other people - who commute to work for 10 miles or less - will be more interested? But those people are also spending very little on gas; they will be better off just buying a used car for a few $K and driving it until the wheels fall off. Volt's intended benefit is in electric powertrain; but it cannot be used for more than 40 miles. Short commute doesn't realize this benefit because the car is too expensive. Long commute doesn't realize this benefit because the electric range is not sufficient. In other words, Volt, as designed, will never be more economical than a 10 year old Japanese car (let alone a modern Prius - which can be had for half the price of a Volt.)
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