July Plugin Sales : Leaf 395, Volt 1849, PIP 688, FFE 38

[TRONZ]

ALOT of economic anxiety for the U.S. in July. Most people held off major purchases. The real question is availability. GM says they sold every Volt they had. Very well. Did Nissan sell every LEAF that was available?

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

we have reports of orphans popping up all over the place, so i would say "no" but i also see that most orphans at MSRP are being snatched up pretty quickly.

i also believe a lot of orphans are people willing to pay extra for the 2012. seems that orphans are more common since announcement of features

 

[davewill]

i also believe a lot of orphans are people willing to pay extra for the 2012. seems that orphans are more common since announcement of features

Maybe, but I think we're getting to the people who jumped on the reservation bandwagon late and weren't as serious about their $99.

 

[rnkepler]

Hasn't Nissan also started delivering demo cars finally?

 

[evnow]

July Sales: LEAF - 931, Volt - 125.

931?? ok, expected Volt to be around 100, but did not expect such a huge drop for the Leaf

Not sure - may be they delivered more in Japan. Last two months they delivered a lot more in the US than Japan to clear the backlog.

 

[Train]

This is to be expected. Early adopters and enthusiasts were first to get their Leaf in the roll out states. Look for more Leafs to be on lots in CA, OR, AZ, WA this fall.

I believe Volt sales will stay that low until they adjust the price. It is just too high.

 

[TomT]

True, but the 2012 Leaf price increase may equalize that some and move some from the Leaf to the Volt camp...

I believe Volt sales will stay that low until they adjust the price. It is just too high.

 

[tps]

Maybe, but I think we're getting to the people who jumped on the reservation bandwagon late and weren't as serious about their $99.

I jumped onto the reservation bandwagon fairly late, but I'm very serious about my $99. I just wish Nissan was as serious. Looks as if my $99 and a year of waiting will get me 1, maybe 2 weeks over someone who has yet to make a reservation.

 

[davewill]

...Looks as if my $99 and a year of waiting will get me 1, maybe 2 weeks over someone who has yet to make a reservation.

I dunno. With the allocations being spread much thinner, a couple weeks on this end might be a couple of months come delivery time.

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

i personally know 2 people who are waiting to get the 6.6 kwh charger. one can only guess what others are waiting for. around here, the winter package i feel is a borderline need.

i received TWO heated car seat covers for Xmas in anticipation of the Leaf's arrival. they are not the greatest but it does the job. it rarely gets extremely cold. the one thing about both of them is they take a bit to warm up

 

[TRONZ]

Hasn't Nissan also started delivering demo cars finally?

Weseloh Nissan had a brand new blue Demo on there lot. It even said DEMO in huge grey letters at the bottom of the factory sticker. These LEAFs are probably not counted since they are not sold (yet). Demo's could be a factor if Nissan is officially designating one for each (participating) dealer.

 

[rnkepler]

Hasn't Nissan also started delivering demo cars finally?

Weseloh Nissan had a brand new blue Demo on there lot. It even said DEMO in huge grey letters at the bottom of the factory sticker. These LEAFs are probably not counted since they are not sold (yet). Demo's could be a factor if Nissan is officially designating one for each (participating) dealer.

Demos would not count as sales and from my understanding the demos got held up by the tsunami and the September vs February delivery snafu. I'm assuming that since they finally got caught up with orders in June that they finally started delivering demos in mass in July. That and they're still expanding the countries that they sell in which don't show up in these numbers.

 

[SanDust]

I believe Volt sales will stay that low until they adjust the price. It is just too high.

The price difference with the recent price adjustments is now $4000 ($35K vs $39K), which isn't that great when you consider what you get. In CA the rebates also won't make much of a difference since starting in Feb the Volt will qualify for the $1500 rebate while the Leaf rebate has dropped to $2500.

As for needing to lower the price, GM just raised the price, which reflects the fact that it grossly underestimated demand. Keep in mind that manufacturers don't sell cars to end customers. They sell them to dealers. For MY 2012, GM has approximately seven or eight dealer requests for an allocation for every Volt it plans to produce in CY 2011. No doubt many of these are because of duplicate orders and dealers trying to get a hot car, but GM is not going to have any problem moving every one of the 10,000 Volts it produces from last month to the end of the year.

Given the supply constraints and the fact that GM will have more distribution for the Volt than Nissan will for the Leaf, expect GM to put 10K-15K more Volts per year on the road through 2013. After that we'll see how much demand there is for these cars. Hopefully combined sales will be in excess of 125K units, which would for comparison purposes be more units than the Camaro/Mistang combo.

 

[mwalsh]

Isn't the LEAF now the largest selling EV of all time in the US? Certainly it must be the largest selling one when it comes to private owners, and absolutely the largest selling one where it could be purchased as opposed to lease-only.

 

[evnow]

No doubt many of these are because of duplicate orders and dealers trying to get a hot car, but GM is not going to have any problem moving every one of the 10,000 Volts it produces from last month to the end of the year.

I'm fairly sure both GM & Nissan will reduce the production if they have problem moving all the vehicles to give the impression of sold out atleast till end of this year.

 

[TRONZ]

I can see why Nissan is getting irritated with the Volt/LEAF comparisons. AKA - Real Electric Cars DON"T Have Tail Pipes. The vital sub-plot of all this is really a format war between BEV and Hybrid EV-ER started by GM. GM marketing has been very crafty trying to constantly call the Volt an EV. While this "fact free marketing" works on the sorts that called my LEAF a hybrid yesterday, EV drivers know the VERY important oil free difference. GM is not producing a BEV and still in 2011 claims that there is NO market for pure electrics (like what they said with the EV1 but freshened up for 2011 with the term "Range Anxiety"). This dis-information will end when more car choices arrive. I am hoping very soon two new threads will appear! One of monthly sales for LEAF vs. iMiEV and the other Volt vs. Prius PI. This will at least be apples to apples, oranges to oranges and blunt GM's deceptive "EV" marketing campaign. After all, EVERYONE knows what a Prius is.

Until then, I guess LEAF vs. Volt will do.

 

[evnow]

I am hoping very soon two new threads will appear! One of monthly sales for LEAF vs. iMiEV and the other Volt vs. Prius PI. This will at least be apples to apples, oranges to oranges and blunt GM's deceptive "EV" marketing campaign. After all, EVERYONE knows what a Prius is.

Thats a thought.

We can have one pure EV comparison thread - Leaf vs i vs Focus EV and another for PHEVs (Volt vs Prius PHV vs Energi).

 

[rnkepler]

16 for Canada in July. Fleet sales only. Reservations don't open to public until end of August.

Nissan Canada Inc. Announces July Sales Results

 

[lkkms2]

Today's (Sunday, Aug 7, 2011) San Diego Union Tribune had an article in the Wheels Section about the Chevy Volt with some projected production numbers. Title in the Photo was "Emerald Electric", "If you aren't going to use the Chevrolet Volt as an Electric Car, Don't Buy One" (hmm?) Later at the end of the article, there was a clarification - "There are more efficient, four-cylinder fuel-economy choices." Meaning if you are only interested in long-distant economy and not the electric local driving, there are other choices.

Anyway, it was a decent article about all what to expect for the new features on the 2012 Volt. Under the Picture of the Volt it indicated "Chevrolet expects to produce 16,000 extended-range Volts by the end of this year, and up to 45,000 for U.S. Customers through 2012, plus 15,000 for Europeon sales....." Sounds like they are planning to ramp up production.

One interesting comment from the writer, "In a recent test, I drove a Chevy Volt 34 miles before the car switched from battery power to the engine. I didn't feel relief that I could keep driving, it somehow felt that I'd seen the man behind the curtain and the magic was over."

Anyway wishing them luck in the ramp up. More of both Leafs and Volts sold the better.

 

[evnow]

One interesting comment from the writer, "In a recent test, I drove a Chevy Volt 34 miles before the car switched from battery power to the engine. I didn't feel relief that I could keep driving, it somehow felt that I'd seen the man behind the curtain and the magic was over."

Yes - it is always fun to see comments about how someone drove thousands of miles without using gas. Why buy a PHEV in that case ? Anyone who has another ICE to use for long trips who bought a Volt just drank the range anxiety kool-aid from GM.