GM article #2: Just in time for the campaign season: GM to stop production on the Chevy Volt because of slow sales volume.

<<<<Timing is everything. Just before the Democrat Convention, we learn the Chevy Volt is selling at 25% of projected production rates and well below any break-even point.  It is losing money and cannot be sold.   

In a DriveOn article,  the news story was short and sweet:

General Motors is halting, for a month, the manufacture of its well-known but seldom-sold Chevrolet Volt extended-range electric car, according to trade publication Automotive News.

It would be the second interruption in production for the Volt, which can go 38 miles on battery power before needing a recharge from its gasoline engine or via a plug-in.

Automotive News, citing unnamed sources, reports the Detroit-Hamtramck plant will suspend production from Sept. 17 until Oct. 15. Leaders of the UAW told the plant's 1,500 union workers about the scheduled downtime last week, the source said.

A GM spokesman declined to comment. "We don't comment on production schedules," the spokesman told the News. "We continue to match supply and demand."

Although the plant had another temporary shutdown earlier this year, Volt demand has actually been healthier. GM sold 10,666 Volts through July, way up from the 2,870 sold during the same period a year earlier.  

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Editor's notes:  kind of sounds as if things are "all good" with GM and the Chevy Volt,  right?  Well,  in a CNN article on this very subject,  we are told of the 2012 sales goal for the Volt - 45,000 units.  The article goes on to state a secondary goal of 30,00 as it states the obvious,  "Now even that seems optimistic."

Understand that sales goals are set with certain cost factors in mind including "break even" points and profit projections.  Clearly,  if GM's Volt sales come in at or around 20,000 units, there can be no doubt that "loss" will be the profit projection most often mentioned in regards to the Chevy Volt.  In order to prop up sales,  the Obama government throws in $7,500 in rebates and, still,  the Volt sells for $32,000 plus tax and licence or close to $38,000 to $40,000.  

And the news gets worse.From the National Legal and Policy Center,  we are reminded that lease/purchase figures involving the Obama Administration and the Chevy Volt are held in secret.   Obama buys so many GM product that he does not want anyone to know.  I am saying that  no one knows how many Volts have been purchased by the Feds,  but it is believed  the number is in the "thousands."  The NLPC article goes on to mention that the Federal government,  the broke Federal government,  has increased its purchases of GM products by whopping 32%.  

Point of post:  to put the "roaring success" of GM in the context of reality,  away from the smoke and mirrors of Obama's rhetorical campaign.