Okay, let’s say you’re GM and you’re readying the launch of an extended-range electric vehicle that’s supposed to change ye olde game. Let’s call it the Chevrolet Volt, and you’re hoping it will be able to go up to 40 miles on a single charge of electricity, then be able to continue on its way thanks to a small internal combustion engine that acts as an onboard generator.
Naturally, you want everything to go just right, which means starting sales slowly, in just a few key markets, to avoid any potential glitches.
It only makes sense to include California—I did mention this was an electric vehicle, right?—and certainly your home state of Michigan would seem an equally logical choice.
Now, if you’re really hedging your bets, you stop there; but if you owe the U.S. government a few tens of billions of dollars, along with your corporate life, you might want to take the quid pro quo route. Which probably goes a long way toward explaining why Washington, D.C., is, in fact, being added to the list of initial launch markets for the Chevrolet Volt.
This should be an ideal strategy for the automaker, which needs to keep lawmakers just as happy as customers if it’s to stay on the path to recovery. A few sales hits wouldn’t hurt, but it appears GM and the government may be partners for a while even if products like the Volt, Chevrolet Equinox and Buick LaCrosse rack up the sales numbers in 2010.
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