General Motors releases a notification to halt Chevy Volt production at Hamtramck plant

General Motors is facing troubled times with its electric vehicle Chevrolet Volt. The plug-in electric car has seen a decrease in demand in the US. The company has announced to halt the production at its Detroit-Hamtramck based production units temporarily.

The Hamtramck unit will go idle on production from September 17 to October 15, for almost a month. GM had previously stopped production at the same plant for over a month this Spring for more or less the same reasons.

According to Bloomberg, GM expanded its production capacity of the EV this year to reach a total of 60,000 units this term. However, so far it has only managed to deliver 1,849, totalling 10,666 for the year.

The Hamtramck unit produces most of the Volts for GM. This year the plant manufactured and assembled 13,770 Volts through July. However, the plant also assists GM in the production of Chevrolet Malibu and Opel Ampera. Therefore, the stop at work on the site will also affect the supply and demand of these two cars.

Another electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla has also seen a decrease in demand. The public trading company’s share price dropped 4 percent on Monday. The company so far produces two EVs, Tesla Roadster and Tesla Model S. The latter is the company’s first mass- production sedan with a price tag of $100,000. However, it is also working on another model that will be money-friendly.

The company is optimistic on the production and sales of its electric cars. Tesla sales vice president George Blankenship is of the opinion the demand is expected to go higher next year. He updated the figures on Tesla’s official website.

“Gilbert Passin, our VP of manufacturing, and his team have now successfully manufactured our 100th production Model S, of which 74 are for delivery to our first reservation holders,” he said. “The balance is being used for test drive cars, in-store displays, engineering tests and for service team training. We plan to continue to increase production in the upcoming weeks.”

Toyota, amidst the demand slowdown remains the market leader with its non-plug-electric-gas car Prius.

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Posted by Usman Khalid on Aug 28 2012. Filed under Automobiles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.