Volt Sales Figures

It was the way the technology was hyped, coming up short on engine efficiency and costing way more than expected. Sales limped along the first year and never got any better.

It had nothing to do with the problem at hand. It was far from mild. And the partners pulled up due to the shortcomings. Also, it was intended to be scaled down and costs reduced just a few years later.

Volt is showing many similarities, including the responses by owners. Year #2 has officially begun. What should be realistic for expectations now?
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Drinnivation,
Apologies if you took insult from my comment, it was not intended to be personal.

From Day#1 the Volt has been the excuse GM and the politicians needed to give GM a 50B bailout. The rest has been smoke and mirrors from GM so they can say "we tried."

I understand you like your car, and I have no problem with that. Most of it was your money that bought the car, and personal preferences are just that.

Comparing the roll-out of the Prius in the US to the Volt makes little sense to me. The Prius was completely unknown tech, and from day#1 faced a massive FUD campaign from GM et al. The Volt rides on the shoulders of 10 years of American success of the Prius and proof of the hybrid, e-cvt concepts; encounters no organized FUD; and enjoys the 'patriotism' angle.

When I bought my first Toyota hybrid in 2004, I already knew that the savings in fuel would offset the higher initial cost over a lifetime of ownership. Volt owners can look forward to a total $25k price premium (personal + tax credits) because every indication is that the car will have a considerably shorter road life than a conventional hybrid compounded by the $40k price tag. Prius enjoyed the real advantages (for some people) of markedly lower CO2 and tailpipe pollutants; Volt has neither.

More ? Prius had a loyal and relatively affluent Toyota base to draw from. GM has truck buyers used to sub-prime credit. Toyota has an enviable reputation of quality and customer support. GM ? LOL

The list just goes on and on.

 

When we were shopping for cars I used the Edmunds site for specs for rear leg room, Volt Hatchback is 34.1, Prius is 36.0, Prius v is 35.9. When you are putting anyone in the 5' 10" plus range in the back seat those couple of inches make the difference and was a big selling point for us. Why get a four door if the back seats were cramped.

 

"Year #2 has officially begun. What should be realistic for expectations now?"

I figure 500 sales a month in 2012, and then GM kills the program officially. I give GM 3 months to throttle back on their already anemic production run. As it is they are quickly getting to the point where half of cars produced are unsold.

I really cannot think of any other car that has come close to the colossal market flop of the Volt. Bailouts are bad.

 

Their revised plan for 2012 in this market is 45,000.

Supposedly the production capability readied for this back in July will take effect this month. But strangely, the CEO recently made a comment that he expected cost-reduction benefit from the higher volume to kick in around June.

What this mean for availability, who knows? But it goes without saying there will be spin to defend sales not increasing substantially to match more being produced. 3,750 per month is the expectation. Less at first means even more later.

How will such an expensive vehicle already struggling accomplish such growth with upcoming plug-ins from both Toyota & Ford?

Rumor of a plug-in Cruze could be the first indication of Volt remaining a niche and resources being redirected into another approach to achieve mainstream sales.
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Production capacity is one thing, actual sales something quite different (in the case of the Volt, anyway).
GM is just preparing the meme that "we were willing and able to produce as many cars as the US public wanted, but unfortunately the car is ahead of its time." This will play well with the few thousand Volt owners and GM apologists, in their pseudo-patriot personae.

 

I recently tested the Volt and the ride was smooth, similar to the Lexus IS 250 I tested. The special Ally Financial lease on the Volt would have cost more than leasing a new Lexus ES 350.

The Volt is similar to my neighbor 2012 Scion Tc in size and functionality, except for a slightly bigger luggage volume in the Volt. And the Tc does not have the rear center hump of the Volt's battery.

Chevy Volt - EPA Size Class Compact
MSRP: $39,145
Passenger Volume - 90 ft3 (Hatchback)
Luggage Volume - 18 ft3 (Hatchback)

Scion Tc - EPA Size Class Compact
MSRP: MSRP: $18,575 - $21,905
Passenger Volume - 90 ft3 (Hatchback)
Luggage Volume - 15 ft3 (Hatchback)
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Well, the '12 Volt got enhAT-PZEV certification (not sure if all '12 Volts have that or only ones going to CARB states). Also, for those who have PV (photovoltaic) systems and/or live in states where a lot of electricity comes from sources that don't produce CO2 emissions such as hydroelectric, if one's drive is short enough, the Volt's overall CO2 and tailpipe emissions will be much lower than that of a Prius.

Try plugging in 98052 to How clean is the electricity I use? - Power Profiler | Clean Energy | US EPA to confirm that 48.4% of electricity from there comes from hydro.

When I attended a SF BayLeaf meeting recently w/the Leafs chief vehicle engineer present, I was amazed at how hardcore some of the Leaf folks are. About the 1/3 of the hands in the room went up (!) when asked "how many of you have PV at home?"

 

Thanks.. sorry that I inferred one then.


From Day#1 the Volt has been the excuse GM and the politicians needed to give GM a 50B bailout. The rest has been smoke and mirrors from GM so they can say "we tried."

I'd beg to differ on the "no organized FUD", there is a lot of organized "right wing" FUD being used to discredit the Volt, GM, the tax credits and tie it to the current administration as a failure. The blowup of the fires in houses that happend to have a Volt in the garage. The blowup of the NHSTA fires. Both of these are good example of organized FUD. Within a day of that at release there were 100's of sites with the same article twisted out of context.

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What is your basis for the "shorter road life" statement?

With respect to pollutants, you are comparing the emissions from an engine start, where admittedly the Prius is much better than the Volt. However, if put in context, its often not much better and maybe worse. Since August I've "cold started" my volt a bit over 500 times. Since August my ICE engine has cold started 44 times. (On some long trips in CS mode it may have stop/started but I cannot really tell). So if you want to put Volt emissions in context one have to consider how often the ICE is used, which is not accounted for in the current testing. As I understanding the current testing they drive it in EV until the engine starts and then finishes the current cycle (really its keep cycling until end of cycle during which they detected charge sustaining. They then take that CD emissions and use a utility factor to balance it with the emissions in the Charge sustaining mode. Currently they take the "worst case" between the final CD UDDS cycle and the UDDS CS mode cycle. In comparison a HEV like the prius, is given 2 UDDS cycles, one cold start, a 30min ait and then a second warm start, and the emissions are weighteed 43% and 57% respectively. (See the discussion in http://www.transportation.anl.gov/pdfs/HV/457.pdf).

The current "worst case" testing is pretty much ignoring all of the Volt's All-electric range. It would not matter if the AER was 300 miles, the emissions in the last cycle of the CD test, would still be about the same.
By the current testing procedures there are always a cold cost-start emissions in charge depleting mode, which is then treated as a worst case. In reality, most Volt trips never use the engine at all!


Personally I feel it would have been better if GM had pushed the emissions down even farther, and would have paid extra for a reduced emission package, but much of the current claims about the Volt emissions are more FUD then factual.


But on most days, my drive to the university or work, drive to lunch, drive toerrand and drive home have ZERO engine starts. On average my pollution is less than if I was driving a Prius. Oh and I'm paying for wind energy for charging, so there is minimal pollution from the charging.

 

After the Government stole the investors money and gave it to UAW instead of letting them file Bankruptcy and sort it out in the Courts, I will never buy another GM and I was surprised by how many people I know that feel the same way.

 

You are welcome to your opinion, but your facts about avoiding bankruptcy are wrong.

GM filed for Chapter 11 reorganization in the Manhattan New York federal bankruptcy court on June 1, 2009. The filing reported US$82.29 billion in assets and US$172.81 billion in debt. Staring 2 June, old GM stock traded Over the Counter (Pink Sheets/OTCBB), initially under the symbol GMGMQ and then under MTLQQ. A week after the Chapter 11 filing, effective June 8, 2009, GM was removed from the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

On July 10, 2009, a new entity completed the purchase of continuing operations, assets and trademarks of GM as a part of the Chapter 11 reorganization. As ranked by total assets, GM's bankruptcy marks one of the largest corporate Chapter 11 bankruptcies in U.S. history. The 'new GM", a new legal entity was formed to acquire profitable assets, under section 363 of the Bankruptcy Code, with the new company planning to issue an initial public offering (IPO) of stock in 2010. The remaining pre-petition creditors/investors claims were paid (but not at 100%), from the former corporation's assets

 

It may be old school, but I believe passenger room needs to be butt tested. Never had complaints from the rear passengers in the gen2, but at 5'11, my head was against the rear window. Plenty of space for legs though.

 

I always sit in the back first when looking to buy a cab. I'm 5'11'' too and if I'm ok then 99% of my customers will be too. I tried the rear of the Volt a month or two ago at a car show and it was way too cramped in the rear for me to even consider, and that was before taking only the two rear seats into account. I can't see why they didn't just make the battery tunnel lower and get a 3 seater in the back. They've lost out on many sales - not just cabs - because of this lack of foresight. Unless that was the idea? lol

I also didn't like the hatchback design. I know hatchbacks are not popular in the US and from the design of the Volt it shows a lack of understanding in their design. I like the idea of the Volt/Ampera but it has too many shortcomings for me. It will still probably sell over here due to the incentives but I think for a little extra foresight, the designers could have many it tick a few more boxes for a few more customers.

 

Actual sales are closer to 1,500 a month right now, and have risen every month for the last 4 (or so, I'm not looking it up right now). I expect sales to continue to gradually increase as they have been and probably level out around 2,000 a month. It would take a pretty sharp shift to drop sales to 1/3 the current rate in the next couple of months.

The models with the CA rebates (grants whatever) and HOV access will be hitting the streets soon, possibly before the PiP hits the continent. Right now the best salesmen for the Volts are the 6-7000 owners showing the uninformed and giving test rides, word will spread and more will be converted.

On the other side, I think many of you are going to love driving electric and will do everything you can to tweak your driving style to get more. Eventually you'll show Toyota there is demand for bigger batteries and more electric driving and the two models will likely evolve closer together, until carrying a generator at all is unnecessary in an affordable long range BEV.

 

Possibly, but I think they were looking at designing a commuter car. Which means a single occupant here. The rear seats are for taking coworkers to lunch and take the kids to school. More than two kids seems to make a minivan or SUV a must here. Such households aren't likely to consider anything the Volt's size range.

Sacrificing rear passenger space for aerodynamics is also an easy out. I didn't have any problems with head room in the Matrix, and it's in a smaller class than the Prius.

 

I make a prediction for the new year:

2012 U.S. sales of Pip's will be less than 2012 U.S. sales of Volt's (almost entirely due to artificial supply constraints from Toyota).

 

Agree!

 

That's the same perspective we get from Detroit publications.

Take off the American blinders. Consider worldwide availability.
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Does that make Tuk-tuk's more successful than Harley Davidson?

 

:focus:
December Volt sales were 1529, which is a 34.5% increase in deliveries from november 2011. 4 months of increasing sales despite some serious negative press/FUD.

That brings the US sales total to (7671) for the year.

Production was
MY12 Year to date 11,241 CY2011 14,510
OPEL AMPER MYTD 2,605

So they met their 2011 production plans (originally 10K, increased to 15K)


http://media.gm.com/content/Pages/ne...ber 2011.pdf
http://media.gm.com/content/dam/Media/gmcom/investor/2012/0101ProductionPlant.pdf