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[extract] A stubborn sovereign debt crisis and collapsing consumer confidence has sent car sales skidding for nine consecutive months in Europe as the car market there falls to its lowest level in 17 years, according to the Brussels-based European Automobile Manufacturers

It looks like the Chevrolet volt fails to create that spark with consumers. Low sales volume and high inventory, which stands at 6,300 vehicles at end of Feb 2012, caused General Motors to make the decision to halt the production of the Volt and Opel Ampera (European version of the Volt) for five weeks. At the current buying rate for the Volt, the current inventory can last for 154 days. The shutdown will cause 1300 employees to be temporarily laid off. The production hiatus comes after a retooling break that only ended in early February. The upcoming shutdown is scheduled to last from March 19 to April 23. As a GM spokesman commented, "We're matching our production levels with demand and building to market." If the sales is so poor at the moment, it seems like a poor business decision to spend money to retool the plant. Or, they could have scheduled the retooling to coincide with the plant shutdown. In 2011, the GM moved 7,671 units of the Volt, which is far short of the 10,000 unit sales target. In January 2012, GM only sold 1,023 Volts, the lowest in the past five months. It looks like GM needs to do a lot more to promote the Volt if the company wants to meet the sales target of 45,000 Volts in US this year. President Obama has personally endorsed the Volt by saying that he intends to buy one when he leaves the office in five years