<VV> Corvair targeted production

[Brent Fullard]

There was a discussion thread about what GM²s targeted production numbers
for the Corvair was at the time of launch for the 1960 model year. Some
commenters were arguing 20,000 units a year (or was it 40,000?) , while
others were arguing 400,000 units a year.

I don¹t profess to have the answer, but to answer this question it would be
instructive to look at the production numbers that Volkswagen was  achieving
circa 1957, 1958, 1959, after all GM¹s business rationale for building the
Corvair was to compete head on with the success of the VW Beetle and other
European imports. I think we can all agree on that.

Here are the production numbers for Volkswagen in that era:

1959:  Beetle 575,407 Transporter 129,836 Total 696,860

1958:  Beetle 451,526 Transporter 105,562 Total 553,399

1957: Beetle 380,561 Transporter 91,993 Total 472,554

So given these production numbers for the upstart Volkswagen and given that
GM was the largest car manufacturer in the world at the time, which is the
more plausible scenario: That the Board of GM authorised its Chevrolet
division to launch the (supposedly superior) Corvair to compete head on with
the Volkswagen Beetle, whose sales were north of 500,000 units a year, on
the basis that:

(a)  Corvair sales would be 40,000 units a year, or

(b)  Corvair sales would be 400,000 units a year

Another indicator of what GM¹s intended sales of Corvair was going to be,
would be to look at the car assembly facilities that had been dedicated to
the Corvair¹s production and the timing of these plants introduction into
the production of Corvairs. Again I don¹t have the details, whereas others
do, but it strikes me as peculiar that GM would be producing Corvairs in two
locations at the near outset (Willow Run and Oshawa) if its ambitions were
to produce only 40,000 units a year.