GM to amp up Volt production
The $41,000 Volt, built at the Detroit-Hamtramck plant, was named Car of the Year Monday at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit.
Ackerson, speaking to the Automotive News World Congress today, said GM intends to expand the extended-range technology it developed for the Volt to two additional vehicles — a hatchback and a minivan — that should be on the U.S. market by 2013.
"We have been pleased and a bit surprised with the initial orders for Volt, and we don't want to miss the opportunity" to capitalize on it, he said.
It "is likely," he said, that Detroit-based GM will put a plug-in Cadillac SRX on the market as well.
The automaker will spend $7 billion on product research and development this year, Akerson said, compared to $5 billion in 2009, the year it filed for bankruptcy.