GM on track to sell 45,000 Volts in 2012

General Motors CEO Dan Akerson says he still expects the company will sell 45,000 extended range Chevrolet Volts in 2012 in the United States.

The company plans to build 60,000 Volts in 2012 - exporting 15,000 them, Akerson said.
"We are ramping production so we can hit a number on the order of 45,000 for next year," he told CNBC today.

GM has sold 5,003 Volts through the first 10 months of the year - and appears it is unlikely it will meet its goal of selling 10,000 vehicles this year.

But GM boosted Volt sales by 50 percent in October to its best ever sales month to 1,108. Akerson noted that more than half of Volt customers were driving premium foreign vehicles, and the car is getting great reviews from owners.

"Everything we've seen is this thing has been a home run," Akerson said.

He noted the company took its Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly plant down this summer so it could ramp up for bigger production, upgraded the paint shop and added six miles of conveyor belts. "Now we're starting to hit the pace," Akerson said.

Akerson, appearing on CNBC as part the celebration of Chevrolet's 100th anniversary, reiterated he was disappointed in GM's stubbornly low stock price.

He also said the Treasury Department, which still holds a 27 percent stake in the automaker as part of its $49.5 billion bailout, hasn't been involved in the running of GM, a position he's maintained since taking the helm of GM in September 2010.

"I hear more about it when I'm on television," Akerson said. "This takes more air time than it does board time or management time."

Akerson, who had said last month he predicted "flattish" U.S. auto sales in 2012, said today he thought 2012 would be "flat to slightly up."

He said sales are currently running at an annual sales rate of 12.5 million vehicles - and that could go to 13 million or slightly higher next year. He said he was "cautiously optimistic here in the United States, but we'll have to see how it plays out."