The US car business has a large element composed of smoke and mirrors,
with subtleties and nuances that defy easy explanations. The Volt has
been a major sales flop, by the standards set by GM themselves. While
the sales have been improving they are still far below original sales
forecasts. As for any money making or losing, that depends on the
accounting "methods" employed and in truth can't be known for years. I
don't think GM expected the car to make money for quite a while if ever,
they were mainly banking on the Halo effect. The Volt was meant to lend
green cred and an aura of advanced technology to their product line as a
whole. They invested heavily to get this spillover effect, hoping to
draw more and different customers to their showrooms so they could
switch them to what they really wanted to sell them. This is standard
automobile industry stuff, and marketing 101 for retail in general.

Wow, that Volt is sure cool, and made by GM, so GM is now cool too, so I
can buy any GM vehicle and not worry as much about being laughed at
behind my back.

Mark