I'm not actually convinced GM wants to sell any Volts. Sales by month for past few: Jan 321 Feb 281 Mar 608 Apr 493 May 481 There's no way demand for this vehicle can be higher than it is now (at least at current price). There's new vehcile buzz, some advertising early on (I see none for it now), and gas prices are very high. Thus, either with these factors people still do not actually want to buy the thing (regardless of what apparent time-on-lot numbers tell), or GM doesn't want to/can't produce more than it is. "at least one GM representative has reportedly admitted that the Volt's problem is soft demand, not low production." http://green.autoblog.com/2011/06/03/chevy-volt-sales-whats-going-on/ I'm looking forward to the Leaf being available in NY. As I've just purchased another Nissan I think i can shoehorn myself into a test drive even without pretending I'm about to buy one.
Yea, the irony of it all. Spin at its best. The same article could be titled: They can build TONS of regular ol' fashion cars ... (heavy/poorer mpg ... and/or even tiny non-hybrid cars) and they just sit on the lots, building up as inventory ... but the hybrids ... they can't keep up with production. .
I guess the short answer is they won't. Even the more pessimistic numbers for Volt sales during year 1 are, by my estimation, impossible now to achieve and will be off massively. This says GM is upping goals from 12 to 16k for the year: http://venturebeat.com/2011/06/01/nissan-leaf-volt-sales/ I don't see how, but anyway, I guess I don't run GM.
