Oh oh! Not Good (GM temporarily suspends Volt production for slow sales)

[botsapper]

It simply explains it.
Volt production on hold for 5 weeks | Detroit Free Press | freep.com

[CigaR007]

Their marketing strategy is partly to blame IMO. While this is not good news, I believe it will allow GM to reassess the situation and think of a new strategy to push the Volt (no pun intended).

Heck, even the Nissan Leaf sales are disappointing @ 22k since December 2010.

[gone-ot]

...GM of "old" is being resurrected...the zombie is crawling out of its grave.

[tru]

this is my surprised face :-l

[botsapper]

Who killed the Electric Car? II, movie sequel?

[gone-ot]

...GM says it's being done to "trim" over-stocked inventories.

[MetroMPG]

Sales of EV's are not exactly on fire, are they?

It will be interesting to see what happens as we exit the winter sales doldrums and fuel prices continue to climb again.

On the other hand, I also wonder how many years GM & Nissan will be willing to keep working on an idea that clearly isn't paying off very quickly, the way Toyota did with the 1st generation Prius.

[Ken Fry]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

On the other hand, I also wonder how many years GM & Nissan will be willing to keep working on an idea that clearly isn't paying off very quickly, the way Toyota did with the 1st generation Prius.

Yes, that will be interesting to see. I've consulted for American manufacturers and Japanese, and admire the Japanese for their long range thinking.

I would have liked to see the Volt come out at $30,000 instead of $40,000. Given what it costs me to buy batteries in low volume, I am fairly certain that the Volt could be priced at $30,000 and be profitible in 3 years. The new Nissan pricing, at about 39k for the Leaf, seems way the heck too high. It is a really simple car: a $16,000 Juke, minus $8000 of engine, trans, exhaust system fuel system,etc, plus $4000 motor and controls, and $9600 in batteries: $20,600.

The party line at the EV sites has been, for the most part, that supply cannot keep up with demand. I have not believed that, but for many people, this will be a sad wake up call. I find it discouraging -- I'd like to see the Volt do well.

But in any case, the existing sales have been impressive (tens of thousands of EVs in about a year) if not taken in the context of traditional car sales levels. The manufacturers have to figure out how to do that profitably.

One can see how conspiracy theories start: "See, it's Who Killed the Electric Car all over again. GM never wanted to make a go of it."

[MetroMPG]

I've also thought it would be fun to see a list of other (conventional) vehicles made by GM which are currently selling at or below the Volt's level. There are bound to be some (Vette?).

[MetroMPG]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

I've also thought it would be fun to see a list of other (conventional) vehicles made by GM which are currently selling at or below the Volt's level. There are bound to be some (Vette?).

Here we go!

Year to date sales (Jan-Feb 2012):

1626 - Volt
2123 - GMC Canyon
1556 - Corvette
725 - Buick Lucerne
247 - Caprice
157 - Cadillac DTS
59 - Cadillac STS

** (I wonder if some of these may be trickling sales of discontinued models... I left out some GM models that I knew for a fact have been discontinued, like Cobalt which has sold 3 this year.

And I didn't include low-volume variations of multi-version models, like Yukon XL vs. Yukon.)

For comparison, some top GM sellers, year to date:

59,147 - Silverado-C/K Pickup
35,476 - Cruze
34,663 - Malibu

Source: General Motors Sales & Production Reports