Today, GM (aka: “Government Motors“) announced they were suspending production of the Volt motor-generator hybrid car at their Detroit-Hamtramck plant for a month starting September 17th, due to slow sales. It’s the second time this year GM has stopped production due to slow sales, the first being in March.

While the Chevy Volt is an excellent example of engineering, aside from it’s really nifty transmission I view the car as evolutionary rather than revolutionary: I suspect few remember the Lohner-Porsche Elektromobil of 1898, designed by Ferdinand Porsche – a car propelled by electric motors in the front wheels powered by batteries charged by a small combustion engine, and capable of travelling 38 miles at 35 miles per hour on electric power alone – sound familiar?

However, some might remember GM/AeroVironment’s Impact electric vehicle of 1990 (which later became the EV-1), or the trio of diesel-generator hybrid prototypes produced by Chrysler (Dodge ESX), Ford (Prodigy), and GM (Precept) from a $1 billion program subsidized by the Federal Government back in 1993. And, while some of the Big 3′s current crop of hybrid vehicles no doubt owe their existence to those prototypes, the Volt is still an expensive choice: Despite a $7,500 $10,000 Federal tax subsidy, Volts spend an average of 60 days on dealer’s lots, with the average Volt buyer earning $175,000 a year – placing them in the 93rd percentile of income (or, the “7%”).

Perhaps the Volt (and, hybrids generally) will become more popular when batteries become less exotic, are capable of being recharged instantly, and can be recharged by the car* as it travels down long stretches of level highway at a leisurely (and potentially mandated) 55 miles-per-hour. But, I suspect that once government subsidies disappear, and/or a future US President allows America’s oil & gas industry to compete, the Volt will become just another very clever but economically impractical engineering exercise.

*Shortly after writing this I met a Fisker representative who gave me a tour of Fisker’s $110,000 Karma hybrid car: Up close, the car’s quite impressive and seems well-built. He reports that in “Normal” driving mode when the batteries run down – usually within 50 miles of driving – the gasoline-powered motor/generator set will start up and deliver more electricity than the batteries need to drive the car: Essentially, recharging the batteries while they are driving the car. Unfortunately, this also reduces the car’s effective miles-per-gallon to about 24 mpg.

Thanks for reading!