This friday is September 30, last day of the month, and September's sale numbers will be out on Monday. It better be good!
I know mine will be included in the September sales figures.. woohoo! Don't imagine the numbers really improving though. There are a lot of misconceptions out there about these cars.. Heck I get a lot of heckling from people about the Prius and it breaking down when you run out of battery power.. It is amazing how people will not educate themselves. Just hoping as they see more on the road the skeptics will die down.
I'm not going to name anyone in particular but GM is responsible for a lot of that misconception. Back in 2004 and 2005 when there were "think tanks" producing white paper after white paper on how unreliable hybrids are, about how dangerous EMF emissions are, about how Emergency Responders were being electrocuted, about how hybrids are more likely to be struck by lightening, about how the Prius is responsible for the Sudsbury Mine in Canada and about how Prius batteries cost $6,000+ to replace some very smart people here on Priuschat chased down where those "think tanks" were getting their funding. It turns out that in the days when only Honda and Toyota had viable hybrids on the road, American automobile manufacturers had their own strategies about hybrids cooking behind the scenes. Unfortunately, they worked too well. Now that almost all manufacturers have some sort of hybrid or plug-in vehicles on the market, the Big Three are facing the fallout of their own smear campaigns. Couple that with GM's advertising that the Volt's ICE is in no way mechanically linked to the wheels, that it will cost under $25,000, that it will travel 100+ miles on battery and that it will earn an EPA rating of 250mpg and there's littler wonder the general public is confused. No, I'm not bitter. I drove the Volt at Green Drive Expo Bay Area and thoroughly enjoyed it. It is a very well-built car. GM should be run by their Engineering Department rather than Marketing Department.
Because a group of you guys can't separate a vehicle from a big corporation (specifically, its marketing department and a former executive) you hate. It's slightly embarrassing to watch. And yet: I had never been inside a Chevy dealer before, or even purchased an American car (well, the Cobra kit was manufactured in MA). I'm glad I put my biases aside and gave it a chance.
Most people are brand tied. Even if they sold the volt for less than the Prius I would still buy the best Japanese car on the market. Which to compete with the Volt would be the Leaf, and it wins on 100% of the comparison features. The volt in 2003-2004 however, would have been a game changer. Now it is just the big stupid elephant in the corner.
I hold any corporation responsible for its actions, just like individuals. When GM remedies the damage it has done to the environment over the years, cleans up the toxic land fills it dumped in the taxpayer's lap when it reorganized, compensates Toyota for the hybrid lies, and remedies the damage it caused by destroying the e-streetcar system in the US in the early 20th century, I'll reconsider GM if by then they have a 10 year track record of reliable vehicles with specs I want. Lutz *is* an idiot, but my aversion of GM goes 1,000,000 fold beyond.
It was a good post. GM has done a great job of over-hyping their Volt. And when they launch attacks against a proven competitor like the Prius they find their mouth writing checks their body can't cash. Following the marketing history of the Volt. Lots of made up nonsense, from range to prices. Now follow the same one for the Prius PHV. How much crap did Toyota tout about this? I'm honestly not sure they touted any nonsense at all. The range they promised they came at (actually very slightly above). No gimmicks like the crazy MPG numbers or anything like that, either.
The Great American Streetcar Scandal. [ame=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_American_streetcar_scandal]Great American streetcar scandal - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]
FWIW, even though I wouldn't buy a Volt, I was pleasantly surprised when I test drove one last year (http://priuschat.com/forums/chevrol...october-thru-november-2010-a.html#post1194704). That said, my parents and I have been burned by GM. We'd in the past owned 2 Chevys followed by an Oldsmobile. We don't buy GM anymore. No thanks. If I were to, it'd have to be a model that has a good reliability record and meets other criteria. The 86 Olds Cutlass Ciera 4-banger was predicted to have above average reliability by Consumer Reports but was still not good. We did have a 93 Dodge Caravan, but that was the last of our American cars.
723 Volts sold in September Nissan Leaf still beats Chevy Volt in September 2011 U.S. sales, but not by much I conclude nothing GM has been saying about Volt sales is believable. They have continually lagged, severely, projections. They were supposedly building 150/day in August and selling all they can make. This just doesn't add up. Yet in September sold only 115 more than in March?
Well, 700 some is a nice increase from the 300 in August and the 125 in July. I understand production was over 2,000 so there may be some Amperas or Canadian bound Volts not counted in that figure too.
According to Wiki, GM shut down the Volt plant down during June IIRC for retooling, hence the extra-low July sales.
550 were delivered to dealers for use as demo models and 2,870 sold through July. 2,395 were produced and 302 sold in August. 2,367 were produced and 723 sold in September. The total sales for the year so far is 3,895. Something doesn't add up. Inventory in transit and the remaining being used as demos would mean next month's sales should be triple that of last month. Think that will happen? That's required for the goal of 10,000 for the year which GM has repeatedly claimed would be achieved. .
