Volt Sales Figures

Thanks for the numbers, this is about what I was expecting.

What happens to sales when the PiPs are available should be interesting. One would think that a consumer that wants a PiP would be waiting at this point for their arrival (or have placed their pre-order), but Volt sales continue to rise.

I still doubt they'll sell 45,000 domestically in 2012 (unless GE buys 20,000 or something), but I think they'll turn in a respectable mid to upper 20k sales number this year (with another 15,000 off to Europe).

 

I did not know that Opel Ampera was on sale. Are you sure about that?

Assuming no fleet sales and no dealer-to-dealer sales, the last 4 months were positive and showed increasing sales.

Opel Ampera delayed over Chevy Volt battery fears

 

The Ampera numbers above were production, not delivered sales.
However, there were at least some delivered before the delay, e.g. see
Got my Ampera
with some nice pic of their Ampera..

How many delivered in CA and EU is not clear. I too have seen multiple articles saying about the delay so I presume its at least partially true.

They produced 609 Ameras in December (vs 1565 Volts), so it does not seem like a significant slowdown in production.

 

Ampera's are being produced and distributed, but not delivered to customers. They count in production figures. IMHO they do not count in sales figures, but some count sales before delivery.

Fleet sales should boost 2012 sales figures, once gm figures out the battery issue and increases production. This should get 2012 sales to at least the 20K mark. The more volts and leafs out there the quicker anti-plug in fud will slow down.

 

Ok, but can anyone find the top 10 or 20 selling cars for dec 2011 or the year? Usually they're cranked out on the 1st, but haven't found one.

 

Sales of the 100-percent electric Nissan LEAF totaled 954 units in December (up from 674 in Nov) with deliveries totaling 9,674 since the vehicle US launch. Its good to see the Leaf sales turn around, even if not up to the Volt sales last month. When the PiP and FFE hti the marke hopefully we'll be seeing a lot more customers (not just dividing pie of the green minority).

 

The concern about GM was "too little, too slowly". Lower cost from high-volume production is a very real challenge still.

Toyota is attacking from different directions all at once. We get PiP in 3 markets all in the same year (Japan, Europe, US). We get 2 new models of Prius (v & c). Plus there's the halo effect, where those who don't buy a PiP will likely by a regular hybrid instead. All of that advances away from traditional vehicles.

The snails pace of Volt and nothing worthwhile as an alternative isn't a good position for GM.

Too make matters worse, the 1529 sold in December likely included a last-minute rush to be eligible to collect tax-credit $$$ right away rather than having to wait until 2013.
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Not even GM is pretending that the 10,000 number was met, let alone exceeded. Everybody, at all news publications is reporting not meeting sales numbers, not production.

GM
"Chevrolet Volt will miss its sales target of 10,000 cars this year"

Dito on CNN Money, CNET, LA Times, Insideline, etc.

What do you think Don is talking about if not a target they missed in sales?

I have held for months that unless the Volt can bring its price down hugely it will keep struggling against an increasingly competitive field. Toyota already dominates the hybrid market and has just released a new model, with a ~$20k five-seater capable of 55 mpg coming out this year, not to mention its plug-in.

Does GM really think it can sell 45,000 Volts in 2012 in North America? That is a hilariously insane sales target for the Volt in this climate. Whatever the production planners are snorting at HQ, it must be good.

 

boy your cranky. Did you say the prius phv would kill the volt because of its low price? Well the price isn't low, its going out there as a halo just like the volt. I don't think we would be seeing a phv if not for cars like the volt or c-max. Will the prius phv sell more prius cs than the volt sells cruzes, I doubt it. 7500 sales this year and 20k next is fine for a halo.

wasn't the phv suposed to come out the same time as the volt. There was a global car recession which slowed down everyone. I'm suprised the volt came out as well as it did considering the bankruptcy.

Naw, always end of the year stuff. The December sales were likely slightly depressed by the negative fire publicity. Weren't you claiming the volt would be dead by now, instead increasing sales each month? If they can get the fire stories to die down, 1500 a month will be a bad month in 2012 as more positive word of mouth gets out about plug ins.

 

Nope, not me. All along I've been sales will closely resemble Two-Mode. Remember the same issues about price & efficiency and the diversion of importance over to the second generation?
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I didn't say that either. What I did say was MSRP would be quite a bit lower, and it is indeed.
.

 

I really don't put much stock in the idea that the Volt leads people into a showroom who are ultimately sold Cruzes. It almost takes a really developed sense of misanthropy to think people are that fickle and stupid that they are otherwise not considering a Cruze but upon looking at, and maybe sitting in, a Volt, they have enough "taste" of Chevy that they end up buying a Cruze.

I am sure there must be numbers somewhere showing meat to this idea if it does really exist?

 

I can tell you it almost happened to me.

I went to a local dealership that had a demo months before the cars were available here, and they had a fully tricked out Cruze Eco sitting right there. Then the salesman had a special computer program from GM to show you how much lower the initial price on the Cruze was and the slight operating cost difference between 40 mpg and whatever conclusions you entered about your driving habits and ability to stay in EV in the Volt.

Purely on dollars it was hard to stay strong on the Volt decision, I would not be at all surprised if others walked away from the conversation with a new Cruze.

 

Does that program readily have a Volt there to show how the Cruze is so much cheaper than it...?

 

That sounded good until you put it into Prius perspective.

The Prius family posted December sales of 17,004 units, up 8.7 percent compared to the year-ago month.​

Prius family is saving much more gas than the Volt without a plug. Wait until PiP and Prius c joins in.

Source

 

Actually they were inflated by the fleet sales. It appears some corporation(s) bought all the stock left.

More than one-third of those sales were to corporate fleets; a larger proportion than in previous months when about 10% of Volts were bought by corporate and other fleet customers. GM said last month was the first time the company had enough supply to fill orders from corporate buyers, which pay the same price as retail buyers.​

Source

 

If it's not out yet, it might be a few more hours.

Auto sales didn't come out until today, 1/4. When I checked earlier this morning, a bunch of automakers hadn't reported their sales figures yet. Toyota was in that boat before 10 am Pacific.

edit: I found one: http://blogs.cars.com/kickingtires/2012/01/top-10-bestselling-cars-december-2011.html. Google had indexed this 43 minutes ago. So, it might've come out only 43 minutes ago.

Found another: http://www.examiner.com/cars-in-national/top-20-best-selling-cars-of-2011-and-december-2011.

 

I'm glad to see prius sales are up. But I did not put it in a prius (or Cruze or any other vehicle) perspective. They met production goals and sales are still increasing. The car is not cheap so its not going to sell as well as a < 25K car.

That has got to the absolute dumbest thing I've ever seen you say. Of course the Prius saves more gas than a Volt without a plug.. the Volt was designed as a Plug in EREV! One could just as stupidly say the Volt Drives way better than a Prius without gas.. but that is just silly. Seems like a desperate attempt to bash the Volt.

Let me know when one of your prius family gets real-world 85MPGe and under .03/mile over 1400+ miles. That is what I've gotten since end of October when I last filled up. I've saved 24 gallons of gas in the past 3 months by driving a Volt rather than a Prius.

 

Carefully read that statement again. He didn't say what you think he did.

Prius doesn't require a plug to save more gas than Volt with a plug.

It's a simple matter of volume.
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Compared to what; the fleet average, each other?

Of course the Prius has saved more by volume. It's been on sale for over a decade with hundreds of thousands of them on the road. The Corolla has been available since the sixties, and has been one of the most fuel efficient cars during that time. It has saved tons more gas than the Prius. Toyota shouldn't have bothered with hybrids by that metric.

 

Sorry, I was only commenting on what he actually said. I don't really know what he intended. If he intended something else then he probably has a dangling modifier.

From your statement guess you are suggesting what that he meant was
The Prius family, without a plug, saves more gas than the Volt.


Well, if you want to compare the Prius family to one Volt, it does not make sense. Comparing the families (million+ of Prii to 7500 Volts) then total savings, I would agree the millon Prii probably saved more in total. But for either of these to make sense they require a point of comparison. Saving must be with respect to something. What model is being used for the saving comparison. If the Prii owners had been driving the original Honda insight then the Prius would be wasting gas. (The Volt overall would still be a net gain over an Insight, even over the whole family). If you want to compare families to a generic average of say 32MPG, then sure. Not very meaningful but technically accurate.

If you meant one member of the Prius family (sans plug) to one Volt, then I'd argue not. As I posted earlier, The voltstats.net site shows real-world usage of Volt with an average of 61+ MPGe (114 raw MPG), while Fuely shows real world 2011 Prius efficiency of 47+ MPG. So on real-world average usage Volt's save more than 2x in gas.