PiP outsells Chevy Volt in April, Leaf sales down

I find the use of monthly sales figures for the PIP to be a little disingenuous on the part of the author. He is certainly aware that these were deliveries of pre-ordered and mostly presold PIP. The month is irrelevant as they were produced as a contracted lot and delivered as they were manufactured. Relevant sales comparison cannot be made until all are available off the lot starting in June.

 

The number of cars sold to people who carefully thought about their purchase and planned in advance to get as soon as possible, isn't as important as cars sold to people who fell in love with it at the dealership, and impulse bought it?

Strange idea.

 

Gotta agree with Corwyn. Build up is part launch process and the number are what they are. The article author may have a tad spin, but a concept I've found very useful in managing expectations is

"Don't ascribe to malice that which can be explained by incompetence"

Just look at the first paragraph

Note how misleading that is.. it reas as if the leaf had a strong showing in march.. in it was only 579 in march which was not strong. It was overal EV that was strong (lead by the Volt). The author is just tossing stuff out there.. does not seem to be careful in what they are saying.

And dont' forget that last month's the Volt's sales were also a bit of pent-up demand as the first HOV volts hit the CA market. So the Volt already got a bump in the press for it.. its good for the Pip to take a bow too.

 

That was pretty much a given. The industry fallout in 2008 clobbered the plans to begin production here with the 3rd and it's not money well spent setting up mid-cycle. Planning for the 4th is a sensible move.

 

I think it will take more than pre-order production to make the point with those voting with their wallets. Presumably, the assembly line didn't grind to a halt with the last PiP. So the first non-spoken for PiPs should be arriving at dealers fairly soon. If those units sell at the same rate as the pre-ordered units, I'd be surprised. There are plenty of Prius options out there for buyers.

Still, it'll be interesting to see how head-to-head sales among the different EV/PHEVs settle out in the months ahead.

What John or Jane Q Public will buy is what will drive sales. I'd feel uncomfortable using the current data set of PiP pre-order buyers to make any kind of statements about future sales trends for Prius PHEVs.

 

IMO the number of cars sold to early adopters who signed up for info months in advance isn't an indicator of ongoing sales.

Not many more of us are going to walk in the door. The question is the demand among the general public.

BTW - my dealer said his main source of interest here in CA has been existing Prius owners whose carpool stickers expired. As they started seeing green stickers passing them in the carpool lane, they started calling.

 

These types of sales are a little sad (and I realize the Volt has CA "HOV" sales too). You have folks like this as you pointed out:

http://priuschat.com/forums/toyota-prius-plug-in/107712-charging-my-pip-worth.html

 

My view is that enlightened government policy is succeeding in getting people to adopt green lifestyle changes that they might not otherwise.

 

I don't think you can make apples-to-apples comparing the pre-ordered sales launch month with the ongoing sales of the competitors. Let's see where sales are in August. My guess is that Plug-in Prius will have at least double the sales numbers of the more expensive Volt and Leaf.

 

I agree. I have often heard that the incentive for 'green cars' just allow the rich to pay less for leading technology cars. In my mind, however, I think that anything that promotes the sales of environmentally friendly products is best for all.

 

True its getting them into the car, but its only good policy if cars are actually used in a green way. It would be interesting if they EV HOV stickers required an annual renewal with a verification of %EV miles.. Its not just what you got, its what you do with it.

 

but if it's getting people into a higher mileage vehicle without plugging it in, it's still a good policy.

 

And if their prior vehichle was a Prius and they moved to a PiP but don't plug in? Could be that is what this guy is doing
White Shadow (Toyota Prius Plug-in) | Fuelly

Or worse yet... they traded a regular prius for a Volt and don't plug it in..

 

He fills up every 4 or 5 days. My guess: Lead foot and a long commute (but in the carpool lane).

Perhaps he drives from San Francisco to Silicon Valley in stop and go traffic, and traded in his BMW for the PIP, doubling his gas mileage.

Edit: See this post. Page Mill Road is in Silicon Valley. Good guess.

 

Here is the launch sales comparison showing the first year of launch.

 

Only if electricity is (relatively) cheap locally. California has some pretty high electric rates. Some high enough that it is more expensive than gas. Past around $0.20 / kWh, it is cheaper to use gas in a Volt or PiP.

 

Yeah, here in NYC, our average electric rate is about 25 cents per kwh, and gasoline is about $4.10. There would be no dollar savings plugging in...but you would miss out on all that EV driving.