GM to Match Volt Production to Inventory, CEO Akerson Says

General Motors Co. (GM), which is halting production of its Volt plug-in hybrid for five weeks, plans to pace production of the vehicle according to inventory levels, Chief Executive Officer Dan Akerson said.

“We are going to match production to inventory,” he said today in San Francisco. “If you were owners of this business, that’s exactly what you would do.”

The company said this month it will stop making Volts at its Detroit-Hamtramck assembly plant from March 19 until April 23. The factory had ramped up to full-speed production Feb. 6 after the New Year’s shutdown.

“We saw inventory building and we wanted to get it into line,” Akerson said. “You’ve got to accept that there is some intelligence behind our decisions.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Jordan Robertson in San Francisco at jrobertson40@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Young-Sam Cho at ycho2@bloomberg.net