Chevrolet Volt On Pace For 20,000 Units In 2012
June 16th, 2012 6:39 PM
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The Chevrolet Volt should eclipse its 2011 sales total by the end of June, and is apparently on pace to sell 20,000 units this year. It’s also outselling a major Chevrolet nameplate.
Wired magazine is reporting that based on sales data via GM (which is apparently based on “deliveries”, though Automotive News and other sources show identical numbers) the Volt is outselling the Corvette. 7,057 Volts have been sold versus 5,547 Vettes.
It’s hardly fair to compare the two cars. They are wildly different, and the C6 Corvette, as great as it is, is now old news, and the C7 is just around the corner. The more interesting story here is whether the Volt can finally gain some traction in the marketplace and keep up the current pace.
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Highly unlikely GM will hit 20,000 sales for the year unless Ampera sales are included too. Gas prices have started to fall and the Prius plugin must be stealing some sales, not to mention the upcoming Fit and Focus EVs. Sales should nevertheless more than double from last year which hopefully motivate GM to keep working on the battery range plus bring the overall costs down. As long as their NA market remains profitable GM should continue selling the Volt despite it not making a profit. Toyota didn't make any money on the Prius nor do they now. Remember, the break-even point for Toyota is around 85 yen to the dollar for exports out of Japan. There would be more people with disposable income willing to buy a $40K car once the economy recovers to 2005 levels. Gas prices are also going to be much higher if the economy is doing great. Love it or hate it, the Volt is the most technologically advanced car now made. Plug-ins are the next step after hybrids to a pure EV future, whose time hasn't arrived yet(until they can reach 300 mile range and fully charge within an hour). There is only a finite amount of oil and the costs of procuring the remaining oil is only going to get harder and more expensive. The amount of new oil replenished everyday is probably a million times less than what we take out. The Leaf OTH has fallen off a cliff. Has gone from easily outselling the Volt to less than 1/3rd the sales.
In November, or more precisely in January, we will be getting rid of Obama, but not the Volt. We just can't afford him anymore.
The problem is not that this car is bad. All indications are that it's pretty good. The problem is that GM built this thing up so big that people expected a revelotuionary product. What they got was a Prius with a large battery that plugs into the wall. Not a bad concept in itself, but not worthy of the hype either. They should have just brought it out and sold it on its merits. As it was, people were already polarized on the Volt long before it launched. The bailout backlash was just another nail in the coffin. I hope they stay the course though. History shows that GM gets off the wall concepts like the Volt right after a few years. History also shows that after they make it right they kill it. I'd drive one though if it were priced more inline with what you get. As it is, I may be the perfect case for a Leaf. I am a Soldier who lives on post so Electricity is included in my rent and my comute is very short. Of course a bicycle makes even more sense.
Its quite easy to compare the two, they are both Halo-cars, built to appeal to a pretty narrow part of the market (though Chevy had more mass-market expectations for the Volt).