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GM CEO Pokes Fun at Toyota Prius

Now that Chevrolet Volt is out in the wild, those working for General Motors are trying whatever it’s possible to make people give the Volt a chance. And if this also included making fun of the Volt’s rivals, GM’s officials are ready to do it.

GM CEO Dan Akerson is one of the first figures from within the US-based carmaker to poke fun at the Toyota Prius, emphasizing that the model produced by the Japanese is one of the cars he would never want to drive. Of course, this happened after Akerson told everyone how great the Volt actually is and how smart you would be to invest your money in Chevrolet’s just-launched product.

"We commonly refer to the geek-mobile as the Prius. And I wouldn't be caught dead in a Prius," he said according to a report published by CSMonitor.com. "This actually looks good,” he added when talking about the newly-released Volt.

Although the Volt is also competing against Nissan’s all-electric Leaf, General Motors still sees Toyota’s popular Prius as the main threat that could affect Chevrolet’s sales.

Chevrolet expects Volt sales to increase significantly in the next 12 months, so the company has already made the necessary adjustments to boost Volt production in order to face demand. The US-based carmaker wants to increase production of the 1.4-liter engine used on the Cruze, as well as on the engine used for the Volt hybrid at the Flint factory.

General Motors thus hopes to roll off the assembly lines up to 400 engines per day in the beginning of 2011 at the Flint site, with numbers to grow the next year to 800 units per day. In late 2012, the Flint plant is expected to produce a total of 1,200 engines per day.
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About the author: Bogdan Popa
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Bogdan keeps an eye on how technology is taking over the car world. His long-term goals are buying an 18-wheeler because he needs more space for his kid’s toys, and convincing Google and Apple that Android Auto and CarPlay deserve at least as much attention as their phones.
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