The American Auto Industry: Still Stuck in its Ways
General Motors announced this weekend that it is going to pause production of the Chevy Volt due to lower than expected sales. Matt Stevens of the Los Angeles Times reports that The automaker informed employees at its Detroit Hamtramck plant Friday afternoon that they would be without work for five weeks — from March 19 to April 23. The move comes despite a jump in sales of the car in February. GM sold 1,023 Volts last month, compared with 603 in January. "Is that a Ferrari?" -something you'll never hear someone say when looking at a Chevy Volt While the Volt is certainly a major departure from the huge SUV’s that GM was pushing during the early 2000’s, the American auto industry still isn’t doing enough to produce efficient cars that are appealing to a mass audience. The main competitor to the Volt is the Japanese-made Nissan Leaf. According to Consumer Reports , the Leaf is $8,000 cheaper and gets 106 miles per gallon, com...