GM "Suspends" Chevy Volt Production; 1300 Laid Off

I think the UAW has a pretty sweet deal -- something like 95% pay for a laid-off worker -- so that's pretty awesome for them.

But for the car, and the taxpayer-slash-owners, not so much.

eneral Motors Co. is suspending production of its Chevrolet Volt electric car for five weeks amid disappointing sales.

A GM spokesman said Friday that the company will shut down production of the Volt from March 19 until April 23, idling 1,300 workers at the Detroit-Hamtramck assembly plant.

The Volt was rolled out with great fanfare in late 2010 but has since hit bumps in the road. Sales have fallen short of expectations, and its reputation was bruised by an investigation into a possible fire risk.

As I've said 100 times, like most of the president's "investments," the "products" invested in were entirely political, not commercial. They were political products, invested in not for any commercial purpose but to appease a political constituency.

PS: Given the timing here -- GM needs a bailout (or rather the UAW does), a liberal president is elected on a "lower the sea levels" platform, GM just coincidentally has an all-electric (um, not all-electric at all, but so it was claimed) car in the works -- does it not appear that the Volt was rushed to market as part of the company's appeal to Daddy Sugar?

posted by Ace at 11:50 AM

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