Color us unsurprised by this turn of events [2] as Automotive News [3] reports GM is set to idle the plant where it assembles the Chevy Volt for four weeks - starting next month. GM will close its Detroit-Hamtramck plant from Sept 17 to Oct 15 with its 1500 staff being made aware by union reps at the end of last week. The knock-on effect is relatively obvious as the illustrious government-owned auto manufacturer notified suppliers last week and while a GM spokesperson would not confirm the planned shutdown, we couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at the comment that "we continue to match supply and demand" as we note this is the second time this year that GM has throttled back on Volt production. The Detroit-Hamtramck plant was idled from March 19 until April 16 amid swollen Volt inventories.
And from Bloomberg:
Sales of the plug-in hybrid sedan haven’t met Chief Executive Officer Dan Akerson’s projections this year. Through July, GM sold 10,666 Volts in the U.S., according to researcher Autodata Corp. Akerson had aimed for sales of 60,000 globally, of which 45,000 would be delivered in the U.S. In June he said sales would probably total between 35,000 and 40,000.
It seems that maybe GM's bondholders had an inkling something was up a week or two back (as they considered rotating to the new GM issues last week)...
[4]
Chart: Bloomberg