GM Suspends Volt Production, Lays Off 1,300 Workers

reply to post by resist2012


Not sure if you read the article thoroughly? (Or, did Fox "news" desperately try to spin this into an anti-Obama direction? I didn't see an indication of it in the Fox link....maybe their on-air actors did?).


As already noted, when the darn thing isn't selling, then the company makes changes to adapt. Also, remember the bad press about the batteries catching fire?

Anyone remember Oldsmobile? Or Saturn?? Just two GM "brands" that had to go recently (last several years), due to poor consumer demand.

But Fox "news", if they can, will go to any and all lengths at this point (election year) to attempt to smear this Administration.

Originally posted by Mikeyy
I don't ever see the Electric Car going anywhere. Electricity is not cheap, and it just would'nt save you any money in the long run.

And for $50k? What a joke.

Does'nt effect me me though, I like V8's, I don't care what the Gas prices become, i'll still fuel up this 350 Small block.

I'm with you on that !!

Think what today's technology could do for a 1967 Chevelle SS 396 !!

GM never wanted to build the Volt as they had not done the research to the point they wanted.
GM knew they would never sell at this time in the design research.

But as part of the bailout the government forced GM to build a long way from ready for production volt. GM want to wait this they had a lot longer range battery and had lower the weight and improved the electric motors to give higher HP with less amp draw from the battery.

The government wanted to get the volt into production because they want the Japanese car makers too start building electric cars.for the US market.

This is the problem you get when you have tree huggers in government.
tree huggers only understand things that people dream up as possible in the future and try to force then to happen long before the idea is ready. tree huggers are not engineers nor do most even understand how thing work.

yes 20 years in the future electric car may be cheap and work but not now..

what i would like to see is a natural gas engine hybrid at this state they would be a lot cleaner then even the best gas hybrid.
T. Boone Pickens. is right about natural gas being a cleaner car fuel. and you can also make a synthic natural gas that would also be clean
en.wikipedia.org...

I started working at Pilkington in Michigan and just yesterday was moved to the cell that makes the windshields for the Volt.

The whole process just to make a blank panel of windshield glass have everything else (trim, plastic pins, rubber guards) is a pain.

All the while I'm sitting there thinking to myself, jesus what a waste of time this will probably be if they decide to halt all production at some time.

reply to post by ANNED

But as part of the bailout the government forced GM to build a long way from ready for production volt. GM want to wait this they had a lot longer range battery and had lower the weight and improved the electric motors to give higher HP with less amp draw from the battery.

The government wanted to get the volt into production because they want the Japanese car makers too start building electric cars.for the US market.

This is the problem you get when you have tree huggers in government.
tree huggers only understand things that people dream up as possible in the future and try to force then to happen long before the idea is ready. tree huggers are not engineers nor do most even understand how thing work.

That's a pretty good theory.

I agree that they simply used the volt idea to press on with a foreign company.

If I remember, some of the failed green companies (Solyndra) have foreign competition as well.

They used taxpayer $$ to fund failed projects.

The money disappears and somebody gets rich behind the scenes.

The whole agenda also keeps American workers on the fence.

No solid long term visions for us.

reply to post by resist2012


Have you noticed that everything that Obama touches on the industrial side goes bankrupt?

Some one please tell me he's not doing this on purpose?

Keep the Volt. I want my old Cadillac ETC back. It had a 300hp V8 and still averaged 22 mpg in my daily driving routine. If a 1999 V8 could get 22 mpg combined, shouldn't a 2011 4cyl get 44 without an electric motor?

This is why GM has become a pathetic joke. Besides the Silverado, CTS-V, Corvette, Lacrosse, and Camaro, they have nothing that really competes in it's class. I would probably buy a Hyundai Sonata Hybrid before I would buy a Volt.

This plus the fact that GM equips their cars with On Star makes me wonder if they aren't a government "asset."

reply to post by MikeNice81

This plus the fact that GM equips their cars with On Star makes me wonder if they aren't a government "asset."

Nope. They are clearly a government "liability"..

Obsama is the perfect dupe to play the commie electric car card. He has so many dimwitted followers that believe in him. The idea is to protect our oil/gas supply while using up the other countries' oil/gas supply. Osbama knows it and plays dumb-dee-dumb like a natural idiot. He is so believable as an idiot everybody buys it! Think about it for a Russian minute. Would you drain your own supply of oil/gas and leave the other dangerous countries with plentiful supply? Hell no. We are going to keep sucking the oil out of the middle east until the sheets blow lifeless in the wind. Camels will look like top shelf marriage partners when we are done.

Never understood why people would even think of buying a car like this when a modern euro box like a Nissan Micra with a 1.5 DCi turbo diesel is capable of 80+ mpg around town and up to 93 mpg on a run. And if GM wanted to aim for a product that was future proof why not build a fuel cell powered car which is what cars will be powered by in the not too distant future?

I've been tracking the electric car meme for years and it gets more and more bizarre. You've got GM producing the Chevy Volt that it apparently can hardly sell while other car companies, mostly in Europe and Japan, continually tout electric cars as the next "big thing."

The Anglosphere power elite (Jewish, Catholic – Vatican – military and corporate elites) are emphatic about marketing electric cars. Such cars are clumsy, inefficient and restrict user mobility.

The Elites want complaisant and not-very-mobile workers – and above all, they want control. They want workers that won't roam very far from home and, should they try, they want workers that won't be able to go very far.

In order to make the argument that slow, restrictive electric cars are "sexy" and "fun," the elites use several tricks from their promotional tool bag. The biggest, of course, is to try to convince people that carbon dioxide is causing dangerous global warming.

This allows those who carry water for elite memes to argue that cars and indeed all kinds of consumer products that use oil and gas are inherently dangerous and should be licensed, restricted or even banned.

Building bad cars with tax dollars to address a non-existent problem (global warming) is "crazy." For a review of the car, see below (and watch how the evaluator strains to find good things to say about the car). The mainstream media, as ever, is complicit in this exercise.

Justin Bieber Gets a Fisker Karma for His 18th Birthday...

Fisker Karma video review feature by autocar.co.uk

Originally posted by TDawgRex
reply to post by resist2012

 

Have you noticed that everything that Obama touches on the industrial side goes bankrupt?

Some one please tell me he's not doing this on purpose?

I believe this is a consequence of having people in power who have absolutely zero business experience. It is not just Obama, almost all of our elected officials are inept when it comes to running a business and economics 101.

Originally posted by kawika
reply to post by Wrabbit2000

 

"Five years from now, when I'm not president any more, I'll buy one and drive it myself," Obama vowed.

I worked on a little tiny sensor in the seat in the volt.

Because of this the company that laid me off (way back in 2009) will no longer sell that part to GM (less income).

And, hopefully he can buy a used car, in one year not five

edit on 2-3-2012 by kawika because: add quote

edit on 2-3-2012 by kawika because: added year of layoff

Hopefully he will be in prison with his buddies for treason!

reply to post by Corruptedstructure


You think in your naiveté that if you've discovered a world-shaking principle all you would have to do is run into the street waving it and people would say 'This is great, he's discovered a world-shaking principle!' In actually trying to carry it out you discover that people say it isn't a world-shaking principle. Or they say, 'You didn't discover it, this was discovered in 1830 by Wemmelholtz.'

(Laughs)

And your enthusiasm and certainty dissipate in the face of this peculiar attitude towards innovation. So, I've learned the only way to truly innovate is: big ideas must have advocates, so I will argue my position in any forum with anybody until it becomes clear to me that my ideas are absurd. And over time, an intellectual environment is like a natural environment; ideas are selected by natural selection. The better ideas survive.

Originally posted by drock905
The Volt simply wasn't a very good car and it was 20,000 dollars too expensive, especially when there are cheaper better alternatives out there. GM fumbled everything about this car from the marketing, roll-out, price, specs, design. Its very typical of GM the last 20 years they didn't really understand what consumers wanted and the result is another flop.

This should have been marketed as a halo car for GM instead of a car to challenge the already entrenched toyota prius. To get the general public really turned on by hybrid cars they are going to have to be sexy and desirable not generic econoboxes Why would i go to a volt when a diesel jetta will get me better economy for a much lower initial cost, especially considering this economy.




this would have sold at the msrp

not this

GM should park the Chevy Volt in a museum right next to the Edsel.

The Chevy Volt is a joke. An expensive joke that nobody wants to buy.

It's too bad Solyndra is bankrupt. They could have bought 5,000 Chevy Volt company

cars for their employees.

Originally posted by TDawgRex
reply to post by resist2012

 

Have you noticed that everything that Obama touches on the industrial side goes bankrupt?

Some one please tell me he's not doing this on purpose?

Forget the Chevy Volt. Now Obama has a whole new boondoggle. - Algae -

Instead of flushing tax payer dollars down the toilet, those same dollars could help

Americans rebuild their homes that were destroyed by the tornadoes yesterday.


Spend tax dollars wisely ---- Spend tax dollars foolishly .... Lets see now.....

which is the right choice? - Food for thought -

I love how GM owns up to their mistake (the Volt) and blames the media for their failure. The Volt was plagued with problems, it was grossly overpriced and in reality it wasn't much better (gas mileage wise) than conventional subcompact cars.

Here's how the Volt stacked up to Chevy's own Cruz Eco:
www.caranddriver.com...

Originally posted by swimmer15
I love how GM owns up to their mistake (the Volt) and blames the media for their failure. The Volt was plagued with problems, it was grossly overpriced and in reality it wasn't much better (gas mileage wise) than conventional subcompact cars.

Here's how the Volt stacked up to Chevy's own Cruz Eco:
www.caranddriver.com...

Lets not even talk about the Chevy Volt anymore. GM blew it. Now even the GM

employees see the truth. It was just another boondoggle funded by the left wing loons.

The employees are gone. Turn the lights out. Add this to the list.

Solyndra = Failure.......lay off everyone.........over priced garbage.

Chevy Volt = Failure....lay off everyone.........over priced garbage.

There once was a man named Obama
Who came on the scene with a jolt
He took all our riches
Made us all gov'ment bitches
And drove off in a used Chevy Volt.

Originally posted by beezzer
There once was a man named Obama
Who came on the scene with a jolt
He took all our riches
Made us all gov'ment bitches
And drove off in a used Chevy Volt.

Send that in to Bill O'Reilly on The Factor.