Volt delivers 1937 and Bolt delivers 3227! Not bad!
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Most of CA did not have healthy Bolt inventory till the last week of December. Bolts were rarer than rain drops in the SF bay area, for example. I'm actually surprised Bolt sales increased despite the barren inventory situation in CA.
But once the trucks of Bolts landed, did they ever go fast! One sales guy in San Jose said he sold 19 Bolts in 2 days this past weekend once the Bolts finally arrived.
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I don't know that the possibility of the tax credit going away had all that big an impact on most buyers. By Dec. 18th of 2017 most articles noted that it was probably going to pass in its current format, so there were only 2 weeks of December where the tax credit was really in doubt.
On the Volt sales in 2016 vs. 2017, only 579 Bolts sold in December of 2016, (3691 Volts sold that month) so the Bolt didn't really impact the Volt that much, which is why the Volt had its final good month of sales. But that was just about it for the Volt having any good months. As the Bolt climbed, the Volt tanked, reaching a number over 2000 only the one time in March of last year.
I love my Volt but it looks like it was a technological marvel but only a modest success in the sales department.
The Bolt is going to have a good year in 2018, and it is another technological wonder, much like the Volt in both its generations. But I don't see the Bolt selling more than 40,000 cars in the US and Canada this year. So it will outsell its elder sibling and be a more successful car, I hope.
The 3 is going to have a great year in 2018 if Tesla can work the bugs out of its production process. The 3 has great cachet while Bolt sales are kind of hampered due to its kind of dorky look and Chevy's deserved reputation for building crappy small cars. Sadly, both the Bolt and the Volt are great cars, well engineered and fun to drive, but Chevy's rep damages their sales potential. The Bolt's odd design cues are an entirely self-inflicted wound that GM deserves the blame for.
On the Volt sales in 2016 vs. 2017, only 579 Bolts sold in December of 2016, (3691 Volts sold that month) so the Bolt didn't really impact the Volt that much, which is why the Volt had its final good month of sales. But that was just about it for the Volt having any good months. As the Bolt climbed, the Volt tanked, reaching a number over 2000 only the one time in March of last year.
I love my Volt but it looks like it was a technological marvel but only a modest success in the sales department.
The Bolt is going to have a good year in 2018, and it is another technological wonder, much like the Volt in both its generations. But I don't see the Bolt selling more than 40,000 cars in the US and Canada this year. So it will outsell its elder sibling and be a more successful car, I hope.
The 3 is going to have a great year in 2018 if Tesla can work the bugs out of its production process. The 3 has great cachet while Bolt sales are kind of hampered due to its kind of dorky look and Chevy's deserved reputation for building crappy small cars. Sadly, both the Bolt and the Volt are great cars, well engineered and fun to drive, but Chevy's rep damages their sales potential. The Bolt's odd design cues are an entirely self-inflicted wound that GM deserves the blame for.
I think the Bolt EV will face stiff competition next year. As long as they keep discounting it heavily they should do okay for sales, but I imagine the Buick CUV will compete with it once it is released and also the new Nissan Leaf. I think the Bolt EV could be helped by adding standard safety features like ACC, LKAS, AEB, etc.
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Viking79, have you heard any news about when the Buick CUV might show up? I haven't seen anything since Jay wrote the piece I link to below. And I don't think it had a time-frame for the Buick Encore look-alike BEV that was in the planning/development process. Encores are cute CUV's and I think an Encore BEV would give the Bolt a real run for its money. I see a ton of soccer moms driving the Encore where I live and they would be a perfect market for a BEV with decent AER so they would never have to use a gas station and seldom need a fast charger. I do hope that the Gamma II platform would allow for a slightly longer wheelbase on the Encore BEV. Encore sales YTD are up 12%, from 78k last year to 88k this year.
The new Leaf will take a chunk of the sales pie, but it seems like Nissan really missed their timing by not having a 200+ mile AER Leaf in production by now. The Bolt and the 3 are really going to eat Nissan's lunch.
On edit: I took a look at Truecars and they have the Bolt selling for $5400 below MSRP around me and the Volts selling for $4500 below MSRP. Interesting. So much for the idea that GM is losing money on them. They may be making very little at these numbers and GM may not want to sell a ton of them because every EV sold may cannibalize a more profitable ICE sale, in their mind, but they are probably making a little on each EV sold.
https://insideevs.com/exclusive-next-gm-ev-to-be-bolt-based-buick-crossover/
The new Leaf will take a chunk of the sales pie, but it seems like Nissan really missed their timing by not having a 200+ mile AER Leaf in production by now. The Bolt and the 3 are really going to eat Nissan's lunch.
On edit: I took a look at Truecars and they have the Bolt selling for $5400 below MSRP around me and the Volts selling for $4500 below MSRP. Interesting. So much for the idea that GM is losing money on them. They may be making very little at these numbers and GM may not want to sell a ton of them because every EV sold may cannibalize a more profitable ICE sale, in their mind, but they are probably making a little on each EV sold.
https://insideevs.com/exclusive-next-gm-ev-to-be-bolt-based-buick-crossover/
I'd bet that GM is not going to make the same mistakes again of letting a Buick variant cannibalize sales from a Chevy.
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As far as I can tell, the 2017 and 2018 MY Volts are selling in similar numbers. There are still a bunch of 2017's out there and they may be the ones that TrueCar says you can get $4500 off MSRP on.
Cars dot com says there are 1934 2018's vs. 1667 2017's vs. 66 2016's.
Cars dot com says there are 1934 2018's vs. 1667 2017's vs. 66 2016's.
Tesla is still going through M3 "production hell" 1060 Tesla M3's this past month which is about a 1/3rd of the Bolt's December total. The Volt's PHEV competitors had a good month with the Toyota Prius Prime selling 2420 units, and the Honda Clarity selling 1425 units. As usual, Tesla's model S and X December numbers were astonishing so all is not lost in Tesla's world.
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I expected higher Bolt sales as well because of the potential tax credit going away and the limited Tesla Model 3 roll out. The rubber is going to meet the road (diff companies EV sales potential) by end of the 1st quarter of 2018 when the LEAF GenII and TM3 are available in larger numbers.
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That remains to be seen...
Musk has completely backed off his 10,000 a week statement and has now even slipped the 5000 a week to March...end of 18Q1...if they don't make those numbers, the 18Q1 phone conference could be a very interesting talk...
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