Obama autos not living up to expectations

Henry Payne:

With sales nowhere near the predicted 45,000-per-year, General Motorshalted production of “Obamacar” — the Chevy Volt — here for the second time this year as its inventory levels lag the industry average.

If that sounds like the general economic fits and starts of the last three years under Obamanomics, it’s no accident. Welcome to the Volt economy.

Chevy’s Detroit-Hamtramck plant will suspend production from Sept. 17 until Oct. 15, idling 1,500 workers. As with its White House financiers, GM was quick with the excuses. “We are not idling the plant due to poor Volt sales. We’re gearing up for production of the new Impala,” a Chevy spokesman told the Automotive News.

But the Volt’s 84-day inventory — above the industry average of 51 days (and far from the 10-day inventory of more popular luxury models in its price segment like the BMW X3) — helps to explain the production halt. Indeed, a spokesman for a Chevy dealer told Detroit’s Frank Beckmann Radio Show this morning that Volt sales were disappointing. “We always knew it would be a niche vehicle,” he said.

We did? Actually, Volt sales should be booming according to its greatest champion, Barack Obama.

Just as Obama wrongly predicted the 2010 Summer of Recovery, 5.6 percent unemployment, and an economic resurgence powered by his green investments, the Automaker-in-Chief also predicted the Volt would lead an electric vehicle revolution that would put a million electric vehicles on American roads by 2015.

We’re not even close. “To get to one million, the White House pinned its hopes on 11 models of electric vehicles. . . . (But) six of the 11 – Ford Focus, Ford Transit Connect, Fisker Nina/Atlantic, Tesla Model S, Tesla Roadster and Think City – either haven’t made their first delivery, stopped production, or are already out of business,”reports CBS News.

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If the Volt was living up to expectations they would not be  switching over to the new Impala, which by some accounts is not as good as the Impala it is replacing.  Both cars suggest that GM is in serious trouble and could be headed for another bankruptcy.  The Volt has sold about a quarter of the cars projected on an annual basis this year.  I don't think Ford Focus will do much better with its 50 mile range.  Electric cars just are not practical for most people.