GM Volt Supply Poised to Surge in Race With Nissan's Leaf: Cars
27.07.11
General Motors Co. (GM) , trailing Nissan
Motor Co. in electric-car sales, plans to boost output of its
Chevrolet Volt to 5,000 a month as the automaker seeks to seize
the lead and test consumers’ hunger for plug-in vehicles.
Nissan is winning this year, selling 3,875 of the Leaf in
the U.S. to GM’s 2,745 Volt sales. While Nissan accelerated
production faster than GM, the Detroit automaker will outstrip
its Japanese rival and make 5,000 of the Volt a month as soon as
January, Tony Posawatz, the director of the vehicle line, said
in an interview.
At today’s production levels, both vehicles are in short
supply and the automakers have thousands of consumers on waiting
lists. It’s still unknown whether customers ultimately prefer a
pure electric car like the Leaf or a plug-in hybrid like the
Volt that can travel longer distances, and how many people are
willing to pay for the gas-saving technology.
“This is very much about supply constraints as opposed to
a sales race,” Rebecca Lindland , an analyst with IHS
Automotive, a research firm based in Lexington, Massachusetts .
“Next year will really show true demand for these kinds of cars
and which one wins.”
Source: Bloomberg