Before the Chevrolet Volt launched in late 2010, General Motors representatives were boldly talking about some big production numbers, like 60,000 or 45,000 Volts a year. It’s been a rocky road since then, and the reality was more subdued. The General sold 7,671 Volts in 2011 and 23,461 in 2012. When you add in the rebadged Opel Ampera, GM made and sold around 30,000 plug-in hybrids last year and the Volt was the best-selling plug-in car in the US last quarter. Now that GM has momentum on its side, the big production numbers – more realistic this time – are coming back.
According to a report in Bloomberg, GM will build up to 36,000 Chevrolet Volts “and other plug-in hybrids” (read: Cadillac ELR) at its Detroit-Hamtramck, MI plant in 2013, an increase of around 20 percent from 2012 production numbers. Bloomberg cites “two people familiar with the effort” who “didn’t want to be identified because the target isn’t public” as the source for the production increase, which includes global sales.
