[Ziv]

They delivered 3 on the 13th, I believe, and they had more than a dozen others in the background of the photo op. Supposedly the other Bolts were going to other dealers as demo cars. But since then, nothing. Crickets chirping make more of a ruckus.
Cars dot com finally got a couple Bolts on their site 3 or 4 days ago, but everyone of them is either a stock photo or a photo taken from a GM ad. They are up to a whopping 40'some Bolts in the entire US 11 days after the first Bolts were delivered.
GM could have EASILY broken the record for first month deliveries of an electric vehicle and gotten some nice press, but they seem to be choosing not to do so. (What is the current record, 762 units?)
Why deliver 3 and then effectively stop delivering them? Or are other buyers getting their Bolts and just not blogging/talking about it? Or am I just out of the loop? I am in Thailand and I don't get a wifi signal very often at my hotel, so it could be I am just missing the boat/Bolt.
I am beginning to think that GM is going to slow foot the Bolt the same way they did with the Volt early on, by restricting inventory and artificially dampening sales. It seems decidedly odd, obviously they aren't making the large profit on the Bolt that they do with established ICE vehicles but every knowledgeable source I have seen seems to think that they will make a couple thousand dollars on each Bolt they will sell, more on the loaded version. Is GM short sighted enough that they are going to wait to make a potentially larger profit after the unit cost to build has dropped a bit?

 

[DonC]

Wow. GM has every incentive in the world to sell the 2017 MY Bolt EV. More ZEV credits and they can travel. We know the cars are in transit. Might be a QC issue -- doubting that but maybe -- or maybe they're being delivered and the deliveries are not being reported.

 

[Taser54]

There are plenty of them.

 

[sduck]

Haven't heard that there is a problem. I saw one in the wild in Franklin TN maybe 2 weeks ago.

 

[viking79]

I think they are delivering them, reports of test drives on here, many dealers have dozens in transit. My guess is hundreds per week will be delivered. To be frank, why waste time photographing cars that sell immediately. Go to some dealers home sites and many have 20 or 30 in transit, and maybe some on the lot. So hundreds for sale, but only a handful on cars.com

 

[Ziv]

Don, Taser, I hear you, but it just seems odd. You would think that the ZEV credits alone would encourage them to sell a decent amount. But I can't find any "I GOT MINE!" reports anywhere. When the Volt came out the new owners were posting here right and left and this is the closest thing to a Bolt owners page that I have seen.
I really do wonder if there is a QC issue and GM is staying out front on the issue so it won't bite the new owners on the butt. Because there do seem to be Bolts in transit, but many of them have been in transit for over 2 weeks. It isn't THAT far from Hamtramck to California.
Plenty of them have been built, but not that many have been delivered. I hope it is a short term issue, and not a GM policy to throttle back Bolt sales the way they refused to build enough Volts back in 2011 and 2012, when the demand was relatively high and there were fewer than 2,000 Volts in North American inventory most of the time.

 

[bro1999]

Whole trainful of them just got to SoCal.

 

[Sean Nelson]

Don, Taser, I hear you, but it just seems odd. You would think that the ZEV credits alone would encourage them to sell a decent amount.

It's the very first production not just a brand new model but of a brand new type of vehicle. They're going slow so that any issues discovered by the earliest adopters can be fixed before they have 10s of thousands of cars that need to be recalled. And it's not just the car - they have to make sure that the dealers are up to speed too. It's a sensible strategy.

 

[SharkVolt]

Just for your info, It ALWAYS takes at LEAST two weeks, maybe three for the rail transit to reach California from Michigan.

 

[don shaw]

Mary Barra was quoted saying "they are producing 100 per day" ....up from an earlier article saying they stated at 9 per hour (72 per day) hen they began production back in Nov?....or late Oct?

Based on Bro1999's tracking, several thousand could be on the (very slow) trains. (passing thru stagnation junctions en route to california and oregon.

 

[Joe67]

So many assumptions.

Try this section -- http://gm-volt.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?561-Chevrolet-Bolt-EV-Owners-Forums

 

[Ziv]

Thanks, Joe, I see Bro's Bolt touched ground in Mira Loma 11 hours ago. I hope that train was chock-a-block full of Bolts!
I remember seeing the pictures of trucks full of Volts rolling out of Hamtramck in 2010, it seemed like it took forever to get to Gearhart Chevy in New Jersey, where the first non-auction Volt was sold. And the legend of the llama began...
If memory serves, the Volts were slow to arrive, but they weren't as glacial as the Bolt deliveries seem to be this year. The early production Bolts have been in QC/shipping for over 5 weeks (or is it more like 6-7 weeks?) which is a couple weeks longer than the Volts took.
I have to admit that after 9 years of following GM/Chevy and their production/marketing of the Volt and now the Bolt, I have a GREAT deal of respect for their engineers. And little or none for their upper management. I will give them a bit of respect on one thing, this time they did get the Bolts into the car mags hands before the temps dropped.

 

[gpsman]

I look at it like a movie premire. Or debut of a popular album (back when physical copies were your only option).

Michael Jackson couldn't debut an album by making 100 copies, selling 100 copies, making 100 copies, selling 100 copies.
Nope. They had to stock pile a million copies, distribute a million copies, THEN sell a million copies.
Michael Jackson's record label was producing albums for months BEFORE they went on sale.

And just like demo tapes hit radio stations before the Album was available, the Demo Bolts are now being distributed.

 

[gpsman]

I feel their only mistake was to say "available late 2016".
They are big kids over there at GM.
They should know by now things always take longer than expected.

If they said "available mid 2017" and delivered in Jan, Feb, or March, everyone would be happy.

 

[llninja]

Whatever the case, I'm never going to be in line to be the first one to buy any new car like this. Let someone else pay full price and be the guinea pig. If I were in the market for a Bolt, it would be in 2019 or 2020 when I could haggle the price down and GM has implements fixes for any early production issues. Alas, I'm not in the market for a Bolt but it's excruciating to wait for this car which was first revealed to us 2 years ago.

 

[WopOnTour]

I feel their only mistake was to say "available late 2016".
They are big kids over there at GM.
They should know by now things always take longer than expected.

If they said "available mid 2017" and delivered in Jan, Feb, or March, everyone would be happy.

Somehow some people believe cars instantaneously drop out of the sky at dealers. This is how it works and the rollout strategy not really any different than the 2 generations of Volts that preceded them.

AFAIK the Bolts from last weeks "1st delivery" event were all trucked in on a special load of Bolts for specific purposes.
Not all were destined to dealers even, (although some were) some were in-house training units and zone courtesy fleets

The brunt of the shipments west are going via rail and the first of which allegedly due to arrive any day now.

WOT

 

[Henry_FL]

Rydell shows 67 in transit, Keys 51, all with VIN's so all of them can be "sold" for 2016 tax credit and as *** says its only days from being on the lots

 

[llninja]

Somehow some people believe cars instantaneously drop out of the sky at dealers.

Yeah, bolts dropping out of the sky would mean there would be disasterously high numbers of warranty or insurance claims, for both the bolt and the other vehicles at the dealerships that the bolts landed on.

How about VWs falling out of the sky...
https://youtu.be/SiAbcw5s9_8

 

[jason.meador]

Yeah, bolts dropping out of the sky would mean there would be disasterously high numbers of warranty or insurance claims, for both the bolt and the other vehicles at the dealerships that the bolts landed on.

How about VWs falling out of the sky...
https://youtu.be/SiAbcw5s9_8

As God as my witness, I though Bolts could fly
https://youtu.be/lf3mgmEdfwg?t=230

 

[DonC]

They should know by now things always take longer than expected.

If they said "available mid 2017" and delivered in Jan, Feb, or March, everyone would be happy.

I'm more blown away by how in control of the process they are. Mark Reuss at the financial conference in the fall of 2014 said the first deliveries of the Bolt EV (wasn't sure at the time what name he was using) would be at the end of 2016. You can quibble but he nailed the date over two years early. Having worked on new product development, I find that amazing.

FWIW it's common practice in the industry to equate the date of the release with the date the first production cars arrive at dealers. That is usually when you have your first few sales. Obviously with the Bolt EV they staged the first sales in NoCal, which no doubt is the number one target market for many reasons. For reference, the first Volts were delivered at the end of 2010 but I wasn't able to buy one until April of 2011.