[AutoGuide.com]

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Available in just seven states so far, some dealers are already offering deep discounts on the Chevy Bolt, while others are marking up prices in order to take advantage of early exuberance for GM’s latest battery electric vehicle.

The pricing disparity isn’t even happening across state lines, dealers separated by mere miles are attempting to undercut one another–in SoCal price differences of nearly $5,000 have been observed within a 5 mile radius–as they battle for a small pool of early adopters.

One dealership 100 miles outside of San Francisco is pushing discounts of up to $3,000 on Bolts this month.

Read more about The Chevy Bolt is a Pricing Paradox for Dealers at AutoGuide.com.

 

[Fourdoor]

The interesting thing to me is dealerships that are stuck in the past.

The vast majority of "early adopter" Bolts sold will not be an "impulse buy". The purchaser will have been researching the car and following information on line for months or years before purchasing the car. In other words, the purchaser is tech savvy, and knows how to do an on line search to find what dealership in his area has the better deals on the car he wants.

Keith

 

[Neromanceres]

I think there are a few things going on.

Some dealers have ordered a lot of Bolt EV's and may have over ordered. Sales might be a little softer than expected on some of these cars as the lease deals are not very good. Dealers don't have too much control over lease rates. Their biggest influence for pushing cars is cash on the hood. Though many of these same dealers also put big cash on the hood of Volts too.

Then there are some dealers that only got a few in stock and figure they can mark the price up and still find buyers that will pay.

I suspect once the national roll out is complete and the 2018 model starts to roll some better lease deals will start and the supply chain will begin to level out.

 

[accelerus]

The staggered roll out of a vehicle has never made sense to me. I've seen a few stories here and elsewhere where someone trying to buy a Bolt out of state and have it shipped was running into problems.

The people that want EVs, yes they are more informed, connected, and up to date than joe blow who needs a car but has no idea what he wants. Seems to me there are a lot of people that would love to get a Bolt, but can't just because of GM being retarded. Do they really think those buyers will sit around waiting forever till they look elsewhere?

I'm sure some of the blame are on the unsavory/shifty dealers as well, adding another compounding element to the problem. And basically why I fully support the Tesla direct sales model. As a buyer, I know what I want. sell it to me, or I'll find someone else who will.

The Volt and the Bolt are both great cars, I love my Gen2. However the problem is and always has been despite the lip service they are giving to EV's, they still aren't going all in to make it as successful as they could. Volt has been out how many years? And I haven't seen a single ad for it. Same with the Bolt. Either GM doesn't care, or whoever is running their marketing department is a dope.

 

[Bacardi]

This is really no different in pricing to a Silverado...

 

[Neromanceres]

This is really no different in pricing to a Silverado...

That's a good point. Incentives on a Silverado can vary quite a bit from one dealer to another.

 

[jupitermoon]

All people had to do was wait a little...and save thousands.

 

[Bacardi]

That's a good point. Incentives on a Silverado can vary quite a bit from one dealer to another.

Correct...Basically you have incentives, got to figure only the minority apply that full amount to the deal unless the customer mentions them, then you have the sales price or the discount off MSRP prior to applying the incentives...

Then you can have jacked up interest rates, getting lowballed on the trade in, BS fees and backend items such as an extended warranty but those are another story...