The administration’s enthusiasm for GM extended to its electric car, the Chevy Volt. President Obama once said he’d like to drive one when he leaves office and no reason he couldn’t. There’s lots of inventory lying around.
The company couldn’t sell the car for reasons that are fairly obvious anywhere outside of Washington: it costs an arm and a leg. Washington tried to fix that in the usual ways, cash rebates and such. The government even bought some Volts. But the car never sold in the numbers that GM had confidently predicted it would and 18 months ago, as Reuters reported, the company was:
Which is the sort of thing that leads one to believe that GM and the government are a perfect fit.
The company did not give up, however, and now:
As Paul Lienert and Bernie Woodall of Reuters report:
Given the economics, it is probably a good thing the Volt hasn’t sold. It might have driven the company into another bankruptcy.
