The temporary halt in the production of the Chevy Volt isn't a sign that the Volt is dead or that electric cars are disappearing, but rather that General Motors executives must now separate the Volt's hype from its real value in the marketplace.
The five-week shutdown, announced on March 2, occurred after the giant automaker saw that it wouldn't meet its earlier forecasts of 45,000 annual sales for the Volt, and that its inventory levels were rising too fast. "We made the move to keep the proper inventory levels and to match production to demand," GM spokesman Randy Fox told
Design News. "But we have no intention -- none whatsoever -- to pull the plug."
Auto industry experts said they believe GM is committed to the Volt, but added that the company's executives succumbed to the huge hype surrounding the vehicle and began forecasting sales numbers that simply weren't realistic. "There was never the potential for the Volt to be this high-volume, this soon," David Cole, chairman emeritus of the Center for Automotive Research, told us. "The economics of this just didn't make sense."
General Motors says it isn’t pulling the plug on the Chevy Volt, despite a five-week halt in production.
(Source: GM)