Chevy Volt Still Set to Hit Dealerships in Nov 2010

What if they build it and no one comes?

As gas prices fall to below an average of 2 dollars a gallon in the US, and the global economic crisis has been crushing auto sales there and everywhere, sales of hybrid vehicles have dropped off precipitously. Monthly sales of hybrids in the US were down by two-thirds in February (to only 15,144 units) compared to their peak in April of 2008.

Now, GM has announced that the Chevy Volt is still scheduled to hit dealer showrooms by the end of 2010. No worries, there will be no delay on that front.

But consumers are being hit hard by the crisis and are not buying cars at all, let alone expensive gas-sippers like a 40,000 dollar Chevy Volt, a plug-in hybrid.

The latest from GM's panhandling predicament is that they didn't need to make a trip to their personal cash machine, otherwise known as the US Treasury, in March. That was the good news. But GM says they will need another 2.6 billion in April to survive until...May? Who knows anymore. And they're still tapping their feet standing at the machine waiting for the additional 16.6 billion dollars in bailout money that they have requested (on top of the 13.4 billion they have already received).

GM may not even be around in its present form by the time the tail end of 2010 comes around. But if they are, they had better have showroom products that meet the demands of the consumers then, not those of politicians or futurist environmentalists who keep nagging the company today.