New Prius v Sales Already Clobbered Volt

As I have said to you b4, I don't think any of those folks said it on prius chat. I did have the expectations of 10K cars instead of 7.5K, and always thought the 45K for 2012 sounded highly optimistic. In november I predicted they would be in the 20s in 2012, NA sales.

 

Tsunami in Japan killed any real plan to make 25k in 2011. It was wishful thinking no matter what, but delaying the nationwide roll-out due to Japanese parts shortages made 25k impossible. And of course the BS surrounding the fires . . .

Akerson's comments about 60k & 120k were more a PR stunt than planned reality. Supply chain capacity is not in place. Without a significant price decrease demand is certainly not there. Perhaps it an ill conceived assumption that volume would help bring the price down a lot. One a first generation product? I don't think so.

 

You forgot

The savior of the company
The new GM
blah, blah, blah

 

What about the 7 that have been parked in front of the biggest GM dealer in my area since December?

Leasing isn't a high-volume solution anyway. Of course, what about the fleet sales? We know GE has committed to buying a large quantity of them. That will add to the used market too. What happens to the value in that situation, especially when a newer model is introduced?
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truth is volt never had lack of supply.. it had lack of demand.

right now they have 120+ days of Volt in stock... why are they not selling?
Gas prices are record high.... why are they not selling?
Prius sold 20,000 in February!... why are they not selling? (Volt sold 1,023).

what exactly needs to happen for Volt to sell? They have attractive lease programs, they have stock everywhere, they have demo cars coming out of their ears, gas is record cars... and Volt doesnt sell.

It is complete and utter failure, case closed. Defending it is pointless.

 

Oh... I'm sure with another $75 Billion or so GM could market it.

 

GM is suspending Volt production for five weeks to unload surplus inventory. 1300 workers being furloughed...

 

yep.. GM closed Volt plant for 5 weeks, people on unpaid leave, 156 days of stock with dealers.

Good ol GM. Some things change, GM does not.

 

Look beyond this forum. Go where the GM supporters are, where no matter what you say all they hear from you is Prius. They dismiss logic. They refuse to acknowledge the realities of business. They don't understand the dynamics of the market itself.

You'll see the optimism from those focusly solely on the engineering with no regard for product rollout complexities.

We're quite sensible here. But now with inventory piling up, there really isn't much to say anymore. Halting production isn't good business and there's no way to spin it in a positive light.

What do you think will happen in the next few months... as more people discover v and the rollout of c begins, not to mention real-world data from PHV ?
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Sigh... brilliant engineers, bizarre management.

 

Or bad product planning.

 

Whoever decided to invest in this project has to answer to the stakeholders (including us taxpayers).

What was the process used to determine project viability and ROI? Was there anyone within GM who could have tried to stop it before it became another albatross?

Corporate history is littered with bad projects that were not killed soon enough, leading to huge losses in money and confidence, not to mention workers jobs. It may be a bit early to add the Volt to that long list, but time will surely tell.

 

Chevy Volt is 10th best selling out of over 55 US clean cars

Nice write up on the overall position of the Volt in the "green car" segment


Chevy Volt is 10th best selling out of over 55 clean-energy vehicles sold in the US

 

Personally, I don't want to see the Volt fail. I want to see it (a) get improved gas mileage, and (b) be less expensive. If they can make it more useful (like with a flat rear floor), that would be a plus, too.

 

I'm no Volt fan at all, but I'd withhold the crowing until a years worth of PiP sales have been reported. YMMV

 

Hopefully we'll hear lots more of that from the GM crowd... because when I say the same thing, they hear is "Prius" and think you're trying to kill Volt rather than aim it in the needed direction.
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From Blind Spot: The Twilight Of The Volt

It’s important to remember that the Volt was controversial as a car practically from the moment GM announced (and then began changing) production plans, becoming even more so when the production version emerged looking nothing like the concept. But it wasn’t until President Obama’s auto task force concluded that the Volt seemed doomed to lose money, and yet made no effort to suspend its development as a condition for the bailout, that a car-guy controversy began to morph into a mainstream political issue.

At that point, most of the car’s fundamental controversies were well known, namely its price, size, elusive efficiency rating, and competition. Well before the car was launched, it was not difficult to predict its challenges on the market, even without the added headwinds of ideological objections (which should have been mitigated by the fact that they were actually calling for government intervention in GM’s product plans while decrying the same). But GM’s relentless hype, combined with Obama’s regular rhetorical references to the Volt, fueled the furor. Then, just two months after Volt sales began trickle in, Obama’s Department of Energy released a still-unrepudiated document, claiming that 505,000 Volts would be sold in the US by 2015 (including 120,000 this year). By making the Volt’s unrealistic sales goals the centerpiece of a plan to put a million plug-in-vehicles on the road, the Obama Administration cemented the Volt’s political cross-branding.​

 

+1

TTAC has been an unabashed volt basher, but in this article he seems to get most of the facts out correctly. It is a good article to read for perspective. Also in here is

Which is my POV. It also makes it silly to compare the prius v (#2 in green car sales in feb, ahead of everything else but the lift back) to an innovative expensive car.

And this from a commentor.

Clearly gm intended the nationwide rollout to help provide a halo. It needed to do the speed up to get cars to dealers. With 20/20 hindsight sticking to a regional roll out would have put less cars out there before the redesign for SULEV and modifications for NHTSA. That seems like a blunder, but not a bad one. With better management, I suspect they would be doing the national roll out now, but would have had the factory closed for months before the engine/battery cage redesign.