Chevy Volt versus Nissan Leaf sales: Just shy of meaningless
Too early to compare plug-in sales
Plug-in sales not yet a good metric for much
Last month the Nissan Leaf sold more than a 1000 units, while the Chevy Volt only sold a few hundred. The Leaf rules! Not.
Through the first 6 months of the year, the plug-in sale’s story can be defined in a word: underwhelming. Of course, the plug-in story has only just begun, so underwhelming sales isn’t surprising or yet problematic.
Overall, plug-in production has been slower than originally estimated by GM and Nissan, and the Japanese earthquake has only made the situation worse. Regardless, until production capabilities increase significantly, there just isn’t much meat to work with in the plug-in sale’s story.
Certainly, in the next few years, however, a wide array of plug-in options will hit the market. This competition will add a few new angles to the plug-in story, but nothing too telling.
Like it or not, but until at least one plug-in moves 50,000 – 100,000 units per year, “underwhelming” will still define the plug-in sale’s story.
This is a good way to make sure that your voice is listen by many people post free classified
Indigo,
Save your venom for the gas guzzlers, instead of the Volt.
Honda has just as big a history of unfullfilled promises as Chevy, but that does not mean people shouldn’t buy a Honda hybrid.
The Honda Civic Hybrid was originally rated at over 50 mpg until lawsuits started coming in, and they adjusted the mileage rating.
The Insight was supposed to be the hybrid priced for everyone, but in reality the Insight sticker price it is only about $2000 cheaper than a Prius with about $2000 worth of standard features stripped off, and about 10 fewer mpg on the EPA rating. The base model doesn’t even have cruise control.
BUT……..
Does that make Honda hybrids or the Chevy Volt bad vehicles? No. It simply means they didn’t do everything that was promised.
I’m buying a Volt based on what the Volt “can” do, not based upon empty promises in a press release, or because the gov’t bailed them out.
What the Volt “can” do is get me to work and back without using a drop of gas while still giving me the ability to take long road trips without re-charging.
That is all that really matters……
The name (hybrid or EV), the GM bailout, the 230 mpg press release, simply don’t matter…..
re: the bailout – hasn’t GM paid it back?
I think the distinctions being alluded to are esoteric to most people who really don’t have a clue about how most technology works these days anyhow including non-hybrid car technology like ABS and drive-by-wire, etc.
ask someone how the cell phone technology “knows” where you are with your phone and can find you.
Most folks move all around continuously with their phones but the technology “knows” what cell tower they are currently at…
at any rate – the Volt is essentially a pilot/demo vehicle… GM running it up the flagpole to see who salutes …. it’s a tentative foray that they realize and understand is a bit exotic…. and I suggest – a better concept than the LEAF because the average person does not want a car than can run out of “go juice” like the LEAF can – although I’ll admit that for some people with well defined commutes of under 100 miles – it may well catch on as a urban car.
but both cars – and the Prius all suffer from the same basic problem and that is that the batteries cost too much right now.
If GM advertised the Volt as a PHEV, that would be at least honest. I don’t think anyone’s going to confuse a power-assist hybrid (like the Insight) with a PHEV.
I would say, however, that it is far too late for me to ever have anything but bitterness towards the Volt. For years, it was touted as a 230-MPG wondercar that would do 50 miles on battery and cost $29,999. Five years and tens of billions in bailouts later, GM released a Volt that costs more than 2x that of my Insight, goes *maybe* 30 miles on battery, and gets worse gas mileage than my Insight. And yet, the government pays people who make over $100,000 per year a $7,500 bonus for buying this car.
GM over-promised and under-delivered. The Volt’s sales figures reflect this. I have no doubt that the figures would look even more dire if you excluded government sales from the total.
Because the word “hybrid” implies “conventional” hybrid.
A conventional hybrid uses a gasoline engine as it’s primary means of propulsion, with assistance from the electric motor to improve efficiency. I think we can all agree the Volt does not do this.
Why insist on grouping the Volt in with the Insight and Prius?
Could GM at least admit that the Volt is a friggin’ hybrid and not an EV?
Still sounds more like you’re in the 1st category to me…. You’ve been deceived…
You are still under the deception that the Volt was only made under gov’t orders.
The Volt was long into it’s testing and production before the bailout.
Just because GM “didn’t cancel” plans that were already underway, does not mean it is a gov’t funded car. If that were true, then the 2010 Chevy Camaro and the 2011 Chevy Cruze are also gov’t funded vehicles because both of these vehicles were also in GM’s future production plans, but did not actually go into production until after the bailout.
I don’t hear anyone complaining about the Camaro and the Cruze being gov’t funded vehicles….
I fall into a third category.
I hate the Volt because it has had the most dishonest marketing campaign I have ever seen for a car. It was sold to government bailout stooges as a “230 MPG” vehicle. It gets 98 MPG battery equivalent and about 33 MPG when running on gasoline. It requires 93 octane fuel, so it sure won’t save money at the pump. And GM continues to insist that the Volt is an EV when it is in fact a plug-in hybrid.
The Volt being built solely on taxpayer money is a MYTH made up by conservative talk show hosts. The only boondoggle is the one in the minds of Obama-haters…. I guess if you repeat a lie enough times, people will begin to believe it…
1. The Volt was a concept car in 2006. Chevy made the decision to build the Volt in 2007. Most of the R&D money was spent long before the bailout.
2. The plug-in tax break was implemented in 2007 when Geroge W Bush was President.
3. The Leaf & Volt get the same tax break for plug-ins.
4. Since the LEAF has currently outsold the Volt, the gov’t has spent more money on LEAF tax breaks to date….
I don’t hear people whining that the Chevy Silverado, or Chevy Cruze are built with tax payer money. Why is that?
It’s funny… All this whining. Volt “owners” are not whining…. Volt owner satisfaction is at levels not seen before. (90% extremely satisfied)
So far there seem to be only two major groups of people that dislike the Volt:
1. Obama-haters who have been deceived by Conservative talk show hosts.
2. Plug-in-Prius and other Traditional Hybrid Fans (it’s some kind of religious thing I guess)
At least the Leaf wasn’t a boondoggle designed with taxpayer money. The Volt continues to be a hybrid that runs on hype and taxpayer cash.
Think Model A, not model T. This is still the early adopter luxury phase. The entire point of this part is to test out technology ideas and find out which work at a cost a median income American can afford. The early adopters subsidize the development.
Exactly…..
Its a waste of time and energy to amass data on Volt and Leaf sales during the build-up phase, before they are available nationwide and before they reach full production.
The data is meaningless….
If they measured the Ford Model T’s success by what it did during the first couple months it would have been considered a failure….