Chevrolet Volt Misses 2011 Sales Target By 2,300 Units, Outsold By Nissan Leaf

Derek Kreindler
by Derek Kreindler

Wamp wamp! That’s the sound of the sad trombone playing for the Chevrolet Volt, which missed its 2011 sales target by 2,329 units. General Motors hoped that the Volt would sell 10,000 units in 2011, but it was not to be.

Bloomberg reports that the bow tie brand sold only 7,671 Volts in 2011, but has plants to increase annual production to 60,000 units annually. 45,000 of those will be sold in the United States. The Volt had only been on sale nationwide for the final three months of 2011.

Adding insult to injury is the fact that the Nissan Leaf had sold 8,720 units through November, compared to 6,142 Volts (according to data from Automotive News). Despite being hyped up as an electric car devoid of range anxiety, consumers evidently didn’t care, opting for the little Nissan instead.

While the Volt was helped by GM authorizing the sale of 2,300 demonstrator units in November, the Leaf, unlike the Volt, has still not been launched in all 50 states, instead remaining on sale solely in the coastal regions and the Chicago metropolitan area. It’s still to early to tell how the NHTSA investigation into the Volt’s battery-related fires has impacted sales, as our data only extends to the month of November, and the NHTSA announcement came on November 25th.

Derek Kreindler
Derek Kreindler

More by Derek Kreindler

Comments
Join the conversation
11 of 81 comments
  • Wallstreet Wallstreet on Jan 04, 2012

    I feel bad for investors or rather gamblers who bought GM common shares at IPO.

    • See 2 previous
    • Geeber Geeber on Jan 05, 2012

      @CJinSD Would that be like the billions southern states and Michigan, Ohio and Illinois have showered on GM, Ford and Chrysler at various times over the last 20+ years when they have modernized (or threatened to close) a plant? Or all of the money that Tennessee showered on GM for locating the Saturn plant in Spring Hill? Memories seem to be a bit selective on this issue...

  • Michal Michal on Jan 05, 2012

    Wow, the Volt has been on sale for barely a year and is at the forefront of a new type of vehicle, and some people are already declaring it essentially dead? Give it time to be accepted by the marketplace and drop in price once production costs are reduced. The first Prius didn't exactly have a stellar debut either, and went on to be a very successful model (top seller in Japan in 2009, etc).

    • See 1 previous
    • Mcs Mcs on Jan 05, 2012
      some people are already declaring it essentially dead? It's window of opportunity is closing fast. With the 5 passenger Prius PHEV coming onto the market this year and GM's own form of cainism, the Cruze PHEV, on the horizon, I think it's going to get a lot tougher to sell the Volt. The sales numbers also indicate that the subsidy is probably benefiting Nissan (and soon Toyota) more than GM, so I don't see the subsidy surviving Congress.
  • GarbageMotorsCo. GarbageMotorsCo. on Jan 05, 2012

    http://apps.detnews.com/apps/blogs/watercooler/index.php?blogid=3790 "But even the 6,000 figure is worse than it appears, because - according to a Daily Caller analysis - many are being bought by the government itself. "On Dec. 7, for example, New York City announced it had bought 50 Volts," reports Munro. "In November, the city of DeLand, Florida announced it was using part of a $1.2 million federal grant to buy five of the autos." This in addition to the 100 Volts Obama himself announced the feds would purchase this May. When Obama isn't buying the cars directly, he's buying them through stimulus grants to utilities. "A total of 64 Volts were purchased by a coalition of 28 utility companies," continues Munro. "The purchase is funded with $30 million from Obama's. . . American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009." In addition Obama is leaning on his corporate crony friends - like the head of his Jobs Council, GE's Jeffrey Immelt - to buy Volts. GE - itself the recipient of millions in taxpayer stimulus dollars - will purchase roughly 3,000 Volts per year through 2015. And so on. Indeed, Obama has promised that by 2015 all federal vehicle purchases will be alternative-fuel cars like the Volt - on the way to replacing the entire 600,000 federal fleet." Impala, Rentibu and now Volt

    • See 1 previous
    • KixStart KixStart on Jan 06, 2012

      Electric utility companies ALWAYS purchase any EV that seems to have any kind of chance of acceptance. The one I used to work for bought several of those Renault EV's of the very late '70's (it was a LeCar full of lead and performed about as well as that description suggests). Given where the NYC Meter Maid fleet operates, an EV makes a lot of sense. Municipalities are always getting grants for this kind of thing. Your link doesn't seem to do anything and I was going to ask for the source of this news but I see from the next post that it's Mark Modica. Thanks for the laugh.

Next