LA Times: Nissan Leaf far outselling Chevrolet Volt

Interesting quote from the article:

I'd guess many of these owners are ones that got burned by the lease-only program in California where their electric cars were taken away from them and crushed.

 

Yes heated seats front and back.

Maybe they should have plug-in handwarmers for each passenger seat.

 

I think it's just that the Volt lease deal is relatively good.

 

Why bother? Don't we have several hundred unlicensed professionals here that can help out in a moments notice for free?

 

My wife just wants her own brake pedal.

 

https://www.greenbiz.com/news/2011/07/21/walgreens-install-ev-charging-stations-800-stores

Have to wonder... what would have to be missing for Walgrens to have not taken this step? the Volt or the Leaf?

 

According to this, nav is standard in the Volt.
2011 Chevy Volt Specs and Features | Chevrolet

 

Decontented in 2012.

 

Except I would like the choir to sing a new song, less religious song. The notes should be more harmonious and less fake.

So should those of us that want electrification be cheering this fight? There really isn't a fight where we should be tearing down a good solution because you have an opinion that one is better. Fans of plug-ins should want more plug-ins instead of gas guzzlers. That's the real competition. The leaf should outsell the volt, otherwise Nissan made a huge bet in the wrong direction. Right now the numbers are really about supply not demand. The rubber will meet the road when the plants are ramped up, and Nissan wants to sell more than twice the number of BEVs each month than they have sold this entire year. I wish them good luck. Its not Leaf against volt or leaf against prius. I expect the next generation leaf and volt to have improvements, I hope they both will have high sales.

For those of us where the weather is not perfect and trip lengths and traffic jams can get long buying a 73 mile EV isn't practicle. I expect that PHEVs like the prius phv, volt, c-max energi, etc will satisfy many of these users with electric miles. Leaf buyers are going to self select to people that don't need a further range. The BEVs may also get further range in the future. Its not a zero sum game. The more you try to have one size fit all the less electrification we will get. If you are interested in using less gas, don't let articles like the one in the LA times make you take your eyes of the prize.

 

I'm not in the mood to flame you, Dave, but I am skeptical about your numbers.

My Prius is paid for, and over 130k miles has cost 1 cent a mile for maintenance and repair. Half of that is tyres. I average about 60 mpg, so 5.5 cents a mile for fuel at the moment.

It looks this way to me:
The Prius started out cheaper, and is likely to last longer, perhaps quite a bit longer, than a LEAF.
The battery in the Prius leads an easier life, and is *much* cheaper to replace.
Per mile use costs are similar.

I'm not bashing the LEAF in any way -- I think it is a treat. Less expensive to the owner than a Prius though ? Nah

 

I did some searching and that comes with a drop in price and is replaced by OnStar's turn-by-turn feature. Me, I'm quite happy with my Garmin.

 

2012 Chevy Volt Price Cut: Pay Less, But Get A Lot Less

I prefer the built in nav and not having to worry about a break-in.

 

Paying almost $2K for a built-in GPS? There are probably a lot of people who have much more disposable income than me.

I paid <$150 for a Garmin 1390 with free lifetime updates for map and traffic advisories. The only drawback: a powercord runs down the dashboard, but for the $1850 price difference, I'll be happy to put up with that cord and to place the Garmin on the floor or in the glove compartment when not in use.

 

Looks like the people that responded to the decontenting of the Volt won't miss the nav.

My Garmin has a bean bag mount, no traces of a GPS in the car.

 

And what is far outselling the Nissan Leaf. Prius Prius Prius And when the other Prius models arrive next year will be game set match.

 

Since he is an actual Leaf owner, perhaps he meant to say: My Leaf does 75 miles easily in the driving I do, day to day.

Western Washington rarely ever gets really cold or really hot.

 

Because selling cars is a winner take all, zero sum, game?

 

Yes it is winner take all and take no prisioners. Toyota will not stand on the sidelines and watch Nissan, Chevrolet or whomever. How or will other companies answer, respond that will be interesting and just maybe,the winner will be the consumer.

 

That is exactly what they are doing. They have no plans for a high volume EV.

 

Efficient ICEV: short commute, limited travel, budgetary concerns
Efficient ICEV: short commute, other long distance travel and budgetary concerns
Efficient ICEV: mid commute, some other long distance travel and significant budgetary concerns
HEV: short commute, other long distance travel, limited budgetary concerns.
HEV: mid commute, some other long distance travel, limited budgetary concerns.
HEV: mid to long commute, other long distance travel
PHV: short commute, other long distance travel, no budgetary concerns
LEAF: mid to long commute, other mid-distance travel, limited budgetary concerns
Volt: mid distance commute, some other long-distance travel, no budgetary concerns

The cars meet different parts of the market.

As EVNow wrote, Toyota are being very conservative. They have hybrid dominance and they're not going to push BEV until they have to or they can do it on a large scale.

Their problem is that the combination of their hybrid dominance and the high cost of batteries means that anything they sell is likely to cannibalize their own sales: if they price the PHV high they could lose sales and if they price it low they lose Prius HEV profits.

Fortunately for them they have two things on their side:
- A $3,000 tax break
- People will pay a premium for HOV lane access.