California seems to be giving the Chevrolet Volt a lot of problems these days. Though it is one of the select few states in which the Volt will initially be launched, things have been far from smooth. One of the latest biggies is the recent unearthing of an undisclosed Chevy dealer representative sending out an email that reads:

Hello *****

Thank you for your online request, as you know the Volt is going to be a very limited production vehicle for the first 2-3 years. Demand is going to far exceed supply for this vehicle, initially our asking price for the Volt is going to be MSRP plus $20,000, we are expecting only receive 9 Volts all of next year.

I will keep you in my customer base for when the Volt comes out and I will contact you with any information as I receive it. We are taking orders right now for the Volt, if you would like more information, please let me know and I will be more than happy to help you. Thank you.

***** *****, Internet Specialist
******* Chevrolet
********, CA

Though it should be noted that the dealer in question sent the letter just before The General’s announcement of a 50 percent production increase for the Volt for 2011, it doesn’t change the fact that GM has been discouraging this type of price gouging from the get-go:

“We also aren’t expecting our dealers to overcharge anyone for this vehicle, either, and will monitor the situation closely when we launch… we’ll be paying close attention when the vehicle launches and do our best to strongly discourage this kind of behavior, as we always do with any GM-branded vehicle,” said an official GM spokesperson.

So far, there hasn’t been any word on whether the dealer has been dealt with or if they are a part of the Ft. Lauderdale-based AutoNation dealer network, who had one or two things to say about any dealer with the gull to do this. We’ll be following this one very closely.