Detroit Free Press reports that GM will halt production of the Chevy Volt for at least five weeks. The move means that 1,300 workers will be laid off for that time.

Last year GM sold 7,671 Volts, their production goal was 10,000. So far this year, GM sold 1,626 Volts (versus 1,154 Nissan Leafs), while their production goal was 60,000.

Though no specific reason for the suspension was given, it may have something to do with damaged Volt batteries causing fires.

According to TorqueNews: “The Chevrolet Volt had a great end to 2011, beating the Nissan Leaf in sales through October, November and December but they weren’t able to keep that momentum going in January 2012, as the Leaf bested the Volt by a margin of 676 to 603. However, with the sales figures for February being announced, the Chevy Volt has claimed the second month of 2012 by a massive margin of 545 units – selling more than double the number of Leafs in February.” 545 units is massive?

The Mackinac Center for Public Policy said that the Volt was costing taxpayers up to $250,000 per car when all subsidies and incentives of its constituent parts were added together.

That’s an expensive golf cart.

See also:

The Chevy Volt, just the latest expensive toy

Does the Chevy Volt produce more CO2 from its battery than from its gasoline engine

This entry was posted on Friday, March 2nd, 2012 at 3:50 pm and is filed under Energy. Tags for this post: Chevy Volt, GM, Nissan Leaf. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.