lithium demand growing , page-79

from gm-volt.com


Besides price, another question that we often debate is how many Chevy Volts does GM actually plan to build.

Since the concept was first announced in January 2007, three numbers that come up in the press most often are 10,000, 60,000, and 100,000.

Two of them have come up again.

In discussions I have had with Mr. Lutz and Thomas Stephens, GM VP of powertrain, a lot of discussion has gone into deciding on the number for the initial production run. Clearly there must be a balance between the desire to satiate public demand and the risk management of pouring out too many cars using revolutionary drivetrain technology.

It seems like since Volt production intention was announced, GM has settled on some figures.

GM vice-chair Bob Lutz had a blogger dinner and members of the CarDomain Blog were in attendance.

Not going into too much detail they write:

“They (GM) are expecting to build and sell 10,000 (Chevy Volts) in 2011 and 60,000 in 2012.”

I was able to confirm and clarify this statement with Dee Allen who was also in attendance and is GM director of marketing communications.

Dee told me “Bob said the first 12 months of production (beginning in 2010) would be around 10k, but in second year 60k would be more like it.”

So there you have it. Now, who will be those lucky first 10,000 ?