With the price of gas reaching the $4 a gallon threshold, you would expect sales of trucks and SUV's to be slow. General Motors has announced that it will halt production of the Chevy Volt for five weeks beginning later this month because dealers had more inventory than they need. Production of the Volt is scheduled to stop on March 16th and resume in late April, a G.M. spokesman, Chris Lee said.

General Motors sold just over a thousand Volts in February, which is up from 603 in January. The Volt is built in the Detroit area, some of the engine parts come from Flint. So far, no announcement on shutdowns or layoffs at the Flint engine plant. The Volt is a unique electric/gasoline hybrid, which has 35-40 miles of range solely on battery power before the gasoline engine kicks in. For people with short commutes, the Volt would rarely require increasingly expensive gasoline. Perhaps the biggest downfall to the Volt is the $40,000 price tag. Even with a $7500 tax credit, sales have been below expectations. If gasoline continues to climb toward or beyond $5 a gallon, the Chevy Volt may become a lot more attractive to car buyers. But that would be more than offset by a decline in demand for most of G.M.'s other products.

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