Chevy stops Volt production (temporarily ...)

It is built in the same plant/line, which is why so many Volt followers are confused.

Production from Feb 6-Feb 29 was
2347 Volt units and 1529 Amperas.

If the plant continues at that rate for another 3 weeks of March they will have produced build maybe 2500 Amperas, but stories say there are 6000 on order... Gm-volt.com has poster in canada still on waiting lists not even able to order (dealers already sold their allocation).


If there are 4000 volts in stock, that is about 2 per dealer in the US. There are 15% more corvettes in stock (at cars.com) than Volts, but they are not stopping production of them. So it really makes one wonder what is up.

 

I expect there are reservations in europe. How many of these turn into sold cars is likely much fewer than the 15,000 volt/amerpera sales gm predicted about a year ago. The announcements in November meant the delayed plant expansion would make it impossible to make all the cars predicted, without a major line change. It is likely what ever cars to be sold in europe through june will have been produced by the 3/19. When the line starts up again in April gm should have a much better idea of sales for this year, but I doubt they will make any announcements unless its good news.

The old gm would have just plowed ahead and built the cars, then heavily discounted them at the end of the year.

 

...no, not the old GM. It's both the old GM AND the new post bankruptcy GM. They have BOTH plowed ahead, and built the cars (Volt), then heavily discounted them. That's exactly where GM is with the Volt. GM is DOING this and saying it is not doing this.

It's the beauty of GM ... doing the same old thing all the while double speaking on how now the company is different.

 

Dealers didn't even have demos in november, this is not a huge overproduction. If they have bad sales they will sell every one by the end of the model year. I haven't seen the heavy discounts, can you point to a real human that actually got a $10K discount? Corporately GM had much lower discounting at the end of this model year accross their line than it did pre-bankrupcy.

I was commenting on the actual production slow down, not press releases. I really don't pay that much attention to the double speak. It seems to be a huge amount of it in all advertising to keep track of it.

 

more likely there is 5000 to 6000 Volts in stock, at least.

 

156 days of stock is horrible. probably worst the seller in the USA.

 

What is the basis for that estimate?

 

I think there are about 6 years of stock of the lexus LS hybrid That was a horrible over reach. Accura RL with 1000 sales in the year, was the worst selling vehicle last year on most lists, that get rid of expensive cars and discontinued ones. volt wasn't close.


I doubt buy that they have 156 days of stock out, those are mangled numbers. They come from dividing total at dealers/number sold in feb. Normally a car maker has a number at each dealer + stock. If they had that much stock there would be at least a 3 month planned shut down of the line and a retooling planed..

 

Not even in the bottom 5..

Here is a table of the "worst sellers" in Jan 2012"

#1 Lexus LFA 4
#2 Nissan GT-R 20
#3 Acura RL 33
#4 Mitsubishi i MiEV 36
#5 Porsche Boxster 48
#6 Acura ZDX 54
#7 Mercedes-Benz CL-Class 67
#8 Audi R8
T9 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG 92
T9 Chevrolet Caprice PPV 92

And for "mainstream" cars
#1 Mitsubishi i MiEV 36
#2 Chevrolet Caprice PPV 92
#3 Suzuki Equator 108
#4 Subaru Tribeca 228
#5 Suzuki Kizashi 253
#6 Mazda MX-5 Miata 306
#7 Honda CR-Z 363
#8 Volkswagen Eos 365
#9 Scion iQ 374
#10 Suzuki Grand Vitara 384


Even ignoring the "worst seller" there are cars with more days of inventory, for example Mitsubishi eclipse has more than 240+ days.

 

would it not be true, it I didn't look it up for you? It's not just individuals - (I've already posted lease Volt deals in the mid $300's ... Google is your friend

New York Town Gets Four Chevy Volts For $29,500 A Piece | GM Authority

 

maybe with corvette sales history, they know how to project better and are not concerned. with volt, they may want to keep supply tight until they see growing demand?

 

Nice! Comparing sales numbers of a $112,750 Lexus Hybrid to Chevy Volt's numbers/inventory. What's next; F-150? Oops, I forgot we already did.

GM Will Stop Building Volt Plug-In to Cut Inventory - Driver's Seat - WSJ

 

Can you get me one at that price. I'll be happy to buy one for $29,500 - that's 22K after rebate. Or is that the price after rebate, which means it likely isn't that much of a discount. It sounds more like the price they should be selling them.

Their has always been a $350 lease rate available.

 

GM's "stop production" announcement probably turned a 156-day inventory into a 365-day (or longer) inventory.

It'll be interesting to see how many Volts sell in March.

 

It's been posted that dealers have been grabbing the fed and state monies - so I'd guess those deals meant NO incentive kickbacks to the end purchaser(s).

.

 

Some chevy dealers, including conrgressional dealer and theif mike kelly are the biggest enemy of volt sales. He actually bragged about firing someone for taking delivery of a volt. But if you have a older model with a $10,000 discount but no tax credit, it really is the same or maybe worse discount as a more legit $2500 discount and having the customer use the tax credit. Worse because I would worry what else that car dealer is doing.

 

Remember when the very same thing happened with Two-Mode rollout? Sales in the second year didn't pick up. They just dragged along under expectations and inventory began to pile up.

It was the undeniable sign of trouble to come, something that there simply wasn't any excuse to satisfy. Nothing could hide the fact that things weren't proceeding as planned.

Now with Volt, there are 154 days of inventory available. That's 6,300 unsold vehicles just sitting there, preventing workers from building more. It's an ugly business reality to face.

To make matters worse, Volt sales were in a market without competition. Soon, consumers will be hearing about Prius PHV ownership experiences... and its much lower MSRP. There are plug-in hybrids from Ford on the way too.

How will GM respond to the ever increasing pressure to deliver a high-efficiency vehicle for large numbers of people to buy?
.

 

That's an easy question: GM will spend another billion or three of government bailout money advertising their "super duper high efficiency SUVs and trucks. You know, the garbage that gets 21 mpg, and not 20 mpg like the 1990s.

 

ah, so it is dealers now at fault... epic. failure.

 

I haven't seen a Volt around here for weeks. I wonder how it will be before seeing the first PiP in our area....

Volt - too expensive and the chassis is screwed up for being a 'family' car.