Automotive News reports this week that General Motors is considering increasing production of the Saturn Sky and Pontiac Solstice roadsters at the company's Wilmington Assembly plant. Bob Lutz, GM vice chairman and global president of product development, told the magazine that "it's become clear that we need considerably more capacity. We are certainly studying a capacity increase."

The magazine says that Wilmington is currently setup to build 20,000 to 40,000 roadsters each year. Lutz told Automotive News that demand for the Solstice is running at about 35,000 cars a year. Saturn General Manager, Jill Lajdziak, told the media at a recent press event that the Sky is sold out through the end of the year and into 2007 in some parts of the country. And that's not considering the additional demand that will be brought upon when production of the Kappa-based Opel GT and Daewoo S2X roadsters begin. "With two-seat cars, you have to be careful how you plan capacity," Lutz told Automotive News. "Once everybody on the block has one, demand sort of tapers off. It continues, but it continues at a lower level, so you don't want to have the added capacity come on just when you're over that first peak."

According to the magazine, it will cost GM "tens of millions of dollars" to add the tooling and manpower needed to increase the production. No timetable was given for a decision. The publication says that Wilmington currently builds about 155 Kappa cars a day.

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Source: Automotive News