Volt Sales Figures

I believe Prius PHV is the most balanced and energy efficient car that is practical and affordable. It is the best solution we have now and the more the better.

No, I don't own Toyota stock nor GM stock (other than being a tax payer).

How about you? Why did my comment prompt such questions? Do you really own a Prius or pretending?

 

Why would I cheer about people not buying an EV just because I own a Prius. Does that somehow make me beholden to laud and cheer any effort by the automaker? It prompted such questions becuase I do not understand such a foolish cheer leading attitude when it comes to the products of any company. If a person owns company stocks then profits make sense to cheer, but sales never does as they could be sold at a loss. As a society we would be far better off if we could sell many more EVs. Continuing our reliance on petroleum is in no way laudable. Reducing the consumption of petroleum per vehicle has been done repeatedly. This does not solve the problem. It simply puts off dealing with it a few more years.

 

Yes, but up almost 9% over last January, which was before the tsunami. Toyota sales are up 7.5% overall from January 2011, so the Prius gained a touch more than the average for Toyota overall.

Is January just a slow month in general? Seems like sales would be slow right after Xmas.

 

Volt sales were up 87% compared to last January, that stat is not that helpful here.

 

Prius sales were up compared to January a year ago...

 

First, I am offended by your notion and implication that I am doing it for my gain (money). I couldn't be paid to do it. I wouldn't want it to be "work". I do my posts as a hobby and for fun.

If you want independence from petroleum, you are barking up the wrong tree. You should be making noise at truck or SUV forums.

You and I disagree on the level of electrification. I believe City EV and Highway HV is the best solution now. Perhaps you want cold turkey pure EV with range limitation. Studies have shown that Leaf can work for 80-90% of the people but I doubt that many will buy and make it work. Nissan is they'll double the Leaf sales this year in the US. I just think Prius PHV has more potential for people to make the commitment (purchase) without significant change.

I believe Volt doesn't have the right mix of electricity and gas. The concept was based on a survey for "one way typical commute". It was engineered and sold before the standard to effectively measure fuel economy and emission was fully understood and finalized. If you followed it from the beginning, you'll know the price, emission and technical goals they set. None of them were achieved, including the sales. Still, Volt is a huge technical achievement, no doubt. I hope GM continue to improve it because it'll take a miracle to catch up MIA for 10 years. They also need less cocky marketing team and a CEO that respects the competition.

What I see in Prius PHV is art, carefully crafted based on through research and data. It has what it truly take to be "state of an art". The best car deserves the best praise, from me. Misunderstanding from EV purists have to be corrected as their views are black and white and Prius PHV has all shades of colors, like an art.

 

321 sold in Jan 2011 was a month after the launch only at the launch states with limited inventory.

603 sold in Jan 2012 was for all 50 states availability with over supply of Volts.

Perhaps, last Dec was the peak. Later this year, superior plugins from Toyota, Ford and Honda(perhaps) will come into the market.

 

Should it be? If I am on a diet and lose an ounce last week and this week lost two I've lost 100% more weight this week than last. Starting from an abysmal baseline it's easy to achieve better.

It is a slow month...

 

Seems like 1/2012 for Volt sales should be a relative peak, since pent-up demand in the states that went live for local sales was fulfilled. Anybody know how many of the 602 Volt sales in January were fleet or government ?

I put my guess in the ring a while ago that 5000 Volts would sale in 2012, but even that is looking like an aspirational goal. The Volt reminds me of the noise that is heard from one hand clapping.

 

But the industry gained sales including the Prius.

 

He should have just accused you of being a starry eyed fanboy. Those two seem to be the only two reasonable conclusions to draw from your emoticon choice in the post that started this.

So, GM should have awaited for the EPA and Carb to come up with tests to run on a non-existent product? The Volt would have reached AT-PZEV then, but likely would have to fend off engineered for the test claims then.

I don't think We'd be seeing the Prius PHV now if GM had waited. Toyota has always tried to keep a distance between Prius and plug.

Nissan aimed for a 100 mile range, and claimed it in the beginning. Is this brought up in every Leaf thread?

 

Auto Makers Post U.S. Sales Gains - WSJ.com

It certainly is bad news for plug-ins and hybrids. January is a typically down month from December, but other things are involved. Both Leaf and volt have much better availability and distribution from a year ago, and we could expect much higher sales. It is not the actual "fire" story, as that was well in play in December. The negative seems to be the cnw, mike kelly, fox news, congressional testimony - plug-ins are bad for America story line. I'm not sure how this plays out, but certainly as we knew in december the 45K volts in 2012 seemed crazy high. I still expect over 20K domestic this year.

The prius sales are definitely anouther negative. Has this negative electrification story spilled over. It was a big drop from december, but a gain from january last year. Last year one of the stories was lack of availability hurt the prius, but there certainly is strong availability now. The prius even with the new model v lost market share in january compared to 2011. Can the prius c all by itself account for 60% growth toyota has forcast for the prius brand?

 

Hmm, well in this thread or another it was thought that people going for the tax credit for 2011 would have juiced sales and I'd say there's strong evidence here that's the case, unless low January is a lingering effect from fire news. The volt certainly dropped off hard from its December number.

But

That's from a year earlier, not the prior month (December). I imagine sales were lower in Jan/12 than in Dec/11. But, I have no washington times membership so can only read the first two paragraphs!

This is very strange to me. A) The Prius remains king of a very small hill of hybrids. It's hardly like anybody has come in with a great competitor and able to sell en mass. B) Last year gas prices got quite high. I have to wonder if the new influx of "40 mpg" sub $20k cars have convinced consumers that perhaps they don't need a hybrid after all.

 

To be accurate, GM car sales gained as well (not the Volt of course, but cars overall), it was the truck sales that fell off the most.

 

Sorry, I forget that my WSJ posts get clipped.

December 2011 sales were 1,238, 939.

I still hope 2012 hybrid and plug-ins get a higher take rate with the new models coming out. Prius is by far the best selling hybrid, but sales have not increased this January as high as expectations.

 

This musical has played out *so* many times ...

Cheap fuel -- Merkins buy trucks and gas guzzlers
Expensive fuel -- Merkins whine that hybrids are too expensive because demand outstrips supply leading to dealer 'market adjustments.' LOL

This is why a planned increase in fuel taxes over time is needed. Without a promise of higher fuel prices in the future, Merkins just cannot plan ahead.

 

I have to think this is so.


Afterall on the highway a hybrid doesnt gain much for you really. Hybrids help the most in cities. If everyone had multiple vehicles, or was willing to rent than using BEVs and non-hybrid vehicles mght really be the most efficient option in the long run. However we are a very long way from that being feasible at this moment.

 

I think there is wide consensus that prices need to come down on plugin vehicles (including the PiP which exceeded the pricing expectations of many here). This is all about driving down battery costs and economies of scale on unique transmission, power electronics, and controller parts. They narrowly missed on emissions but that's been fixed now.

I think they achieved all of their key technical goals: the transmission appears to be a good match for the targetted driving patterns, and the battery cells appear to be a good match for plugin vehicles with good energy and power density along with good safety, calendar life, and cycle life. They are taking good advantage of their advanced telematics with smart phone apps, SMS and email notifications, and an owner website.

The jury is still out on the battery pack design. They had to fix the recent corner case with the side pole crash test that hit exactly in line with the steel brace that the front seats are bolted to thereby focusing the impact energy and driving the brace about one inch into the side of the pack (which has now been fixed by adding small steel plates to spread the energy). Will liquid active cooling be worth it by extending the battery life? Would a design using actively conditioned air flow have been better (cell supplier Compact Power Inc. (LG Chem) has a design now)? Maybe simpler air flow or even passive radiation like the LEAF? Time will tell.

The Volt engine is "off the shelf" and returns good efficiency that matches several other hybrid cars on highway mileage which is where typical Volt driving patterns will use it. Advancing the engine design does not appear to have been a technical goal for the first generation in order to lower implementation risk and to focus their limited resources. Presumably this will be a key area for improvement in the next generation.

 

It will be a rough decision to ignore the existence of the PiP since they have been able to maintain their gas performance.

I can see a Leaf/PiP household now

 

Changes to volt emissions will not be reflected in sales until march at the earliest. The problem with blaming emissions ignores the fact that the leaf had a similar down turn in sales.

Toyota and GM truck sales fell compared to a year earlier. The camry and prius v were heavily advertised, camry had a big sales increase, the prius did not. Ford Focus and VW diesels sales greatly increased. Factory incentives have been credited with some of the focus sales success.