General Motors has announced that it is increasing first-year production of the Chevrolet Volt by 50 per cent.
Only days after order books for the range-extender hybrid opened, GM said that “strong public interest” had persuaded it to raise the US production capacity for the car from 30,000 units in 2012 to 45,000.
Read the full story on the Chevrolet Volt going on sale
The announcement was timed to coincide with a visit by US president Barack Obama to the Volt’s production facility in Detroit. GM chairman and CEO Ed Whitacre said, “We are proud to host the president of the United States at this plant, where the future of the American automobile industry is being built today by the men and women of General Motors.”
Key to the Volt’s production figures will be its battery supply chain. GM’s cell supplier, LG Chem/Compact Power, recently started work on a 650,000sq ft factory in Holland, Michigan.
