After government tells GM the Volt is a waste of time, GM asks for $2.6 bln to build it

In 2001, GM's US sales were 4,904,015
By 2007 GM's US sales were 3,866,620

It was decreasing every year during this period. Market share was eroding even faster from above 50% decades ago to well under 30% and decreasing today. Losing over 25% of US market share requires first rate incompetence. 2008 was the worse yet. GM was withering badly with nothing in the works to alter the trend for all these years. Only the excessive profit of gaudy SUVs held off the implosion. So here is the situation:
1) Plants, workers, and facilities for building 5 mil big vehicles/year and a market for less than 3 mil vehicles/year, most of them not SUVs
2) Legacy costs for a huge workforce of the previous generations.
3) A dealer network needing to sell twice as many cars as actually sold to be in the black.

In stark terms, GM needs to recapture 25% more of the US auto market or go through a massive downsizing to become viable.....and is looking at the US government to figure it out. GM really doesn't know what to do!!