Greencarreports : Does GM Have A Chevy Volt Sales Problem?

[evnow]

John Voelcker is a reliable Volt supporter. But even he is forced to ask this question.

http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1066882_electric-car-sales-does-gm-have-a-chevy-volt-sales-problem" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

But we're left with the math: To hit 10,000 U.S. sales for 2011, GM must sell more than 2,000 Volts a month--on average--in October, November, and December.

There you have it, GM. Show us the sales. You have three months.

Couple of importnat points to consider are
- GM had a planned 4 week shutdown of the plant to start MY12 production. But the production restarted in July.
- GM has said they will sell 10,000 Volts this year in the US
- GM is making 150 Volts a day (4 days a week - so 2,500 Volts/Amperas a month)

Given all this - August's low Volt sales were puzzling. But then some reasoned that we should wait another month since MY12 Volts were in transit. So, what happenned in September ?

From gm-volt.com

“As of today there are approximately 700 Volts in dealer inventory at the nearly 2,100 Chevrolet dealers in 27 states currently selling the Volt,” Peterson said. “The number of dealers will grow to 2,600 by the end of the year.”

Additionally many more Volts are on the way, he said.

“There are also 1,700 Volts in transit (on average it takes about 14 days for a Volt to travel by truck and train to our launch market dealers which are primarily on the coasts),” he said.

Are the low Volt sales because of mis-match between demand & supply ? GM allocates Volts based on general Chevy sales - so high volume Chevy dealers get to order more Volts. That can create weird situations. In Chevy's site you can check the Volt's that are with dealers. For eg. in Seattle metro, in upscale areas where you expect Volt's potential buyers are, I see just one or two Volts listed. But in south, I see 4 pages of Volts listed. Ofcourse, those who really want a Volt will go to south to get one - but this shows the kind of demand-supply mismatch that can happen.

Volt's fans seem to take it as an article of faith that supply is severely limited compared to demand - but that is just an assumption. But is there really any evidence that Volt's demand is more than the supply ? Remember, GM refuses to disclose # of orders for Volt, unlike Nissan for Leaf.

ps : There is one more interesting change of phrase in the way GM is now talking about 10K sales in 2011. They are now saying

“We’re still on track to deliver 10,000 units to dealers for retail delivery (producing 16,000 in total for 2011),” Peterson said of North American and worldwide deliveries respectively. “The pipeline is filling up and becoming much more fluid.”

So, essentially, GM will make and deliver to dealers, 10K Volts. They are no longer saying 10K sales/deliveries to retail customers.

 

[Herm]

GM only sells and delivers to dealers..

 

[TRONZ]

GM only sells and delivers to dealers..

So does Nissan. :roll:

@EVNow, the Volt situation is a mystery since GM refuses to disclose their orders (demand). They certainly are wanting to keep everyone in the dark. This combined with GM's extreemly competetive behavior towards the LEAF just screams they are selling every Volt they can. They know people are paying attention to the sales score.

IMHO, if GM starts saying they were never really competing with the LEAF in the first place, the Volt program will be in full damage control.

It's really all so stupid. Why did GM pick a fight with the LEAF in the first place???

 

[SanDust]

Occam's Razor holds that it's best to avoid the introduction of new assumptions when the old will do. Theories about mismatches in allocations and customers is interesting but probably unnecessary. Orders made after the line reopened are just now reaching customers. In the Volt Forum there are a significant number of posts about people getting their cars. This one was at the top of the list. Since Volt buyers can track their orders you get a good idea of the length of time between ordering, production, and delivers. This person says they are picking up their car up on Friday. The tracking shows the car was ordered in May, was produced during the first couple of weeks weeks after the line was restarted in July, and has just now shown up at the dealer. The Vin# is C2193 which means it's the 2193 MY 2012 Volt made:

05/07/2011 (1100) Order placed at dealership. Order passed GM edit tables but dealer has not received allocation to place order.
05/07/2011 (1102) Order entered via web.
06/02/2011 (2030) Order edited or modified.
06/03/2011 (2030) Order edited or modified.
07/04/2011 (2000) Order accepted by GM. Dealer used allocation to place order into production.
07/05/2011 (2500) Order preferenced. Order pulled to the production system.
07/06/2011 (3000) Order accepted by production control. Parts being ordered and production process is underway.
07/29/2011 (3100) Order available to sequence.
07/29/2011 (3300) Order scheduled for production. Order is scheduled into the plant build cycle.
07/30/2011 (3400) Order Broadcast (internal plant paperwork order produced). Order is sent to various build & supplier areas to bring order together.
08/22/2011 (3800) Order produced and vehicle is being prepared for shipping. For Cadillac, GMC and Buick customers, please contact your dealer or customer service for further updates as no further updates available at this time.
09/16/2011 (4000) Vehicle available to ship.
09/16/2011 (4150) Invoiced (order is invoiced to the dealer).
09/16/2011 (4B00) Your car is bayed and is waiting for transportation by truck, rail or transfer to vendor.
09/21/2011 (4B00) Your car is bayed and is waiting for transportation by truck, rail or transfer to vendor.
09/23/2011 (4B00) Your car is bayed and is waiting for transportation by truck, rail or transfer to vendor.
09/25/2011 (4B00) Your car is bayed and is waiting for transportation by truck, rail or transfer to vendor.
09/25/2011 (4200) Shipped (vehicle is shipped to the dealer or interim point of delivery).
09/25/2011 (4300) Interm transfer. Processing transfer to QC or vendor.
09/27/2011 (4200) Shipped (vehicle is shipped to the dealer or interim point of delivery).
09/30/2011 (4B00) Your car is bayed and is waiting for transportation by truck, rail or transfer to vendor.
09/30/2011 (4800) Rail ramp unload. Vehicle has been unloaded from train.

GM has said that the average time a Volt stays on a dealer lot is three days and that the time interval between a Volt leaving the factory and being delivered to a customer is 20 days (average for a decently selling car would be 88 days). This schedule seems to be right on those averages. Other than the process taking longer than one might expect it doesn't seem like anything extraordinary is going on.

 

[JasonMurray]

These 2 electric cars Chevy Volt and Nissan Leaf are very competitive. In terms of sales, there are times that Chevy Volt is higher than the Leaf and vice versa. Well, I think this is normal since people have different taste of car. Some may like the chevrolet parts design of chevy volts while others like more the Nissan Leaf's design.

 

[mwalsh]

These 2 electric cars Chevy Volt and Nissan Leaf are very competitive. In terms of sales, there are times that Chevy Volt is higher than the Leaf and vice versa. Well, I think this is normal since people have different taste of car. Some may like the {url=http://www.carpartswholesale.com/cpw/chevrolet-car-parts.html]chevrolet parts[/url}design of chevy volts while others like more the Nissan Leaf's design.

Was the spam in your post intentional or accidental?

 

[Herm]

it was just the random url generator that malfunctioned

 

[evnow]

Was the spam in your post intentional or accidental?

Not sure what happenned there - the profile is not a normal spammer's.