A nice chart/analysis done over at gm-volt.com So from 15 similarly priced "upscale mid-size" cars (the usnew class for the Volt) August sales put it 6th. Not to shabby for a fledgeling product in a category where prestige matters, and where it has to compete with its older brother caddy. I find it interesting that its within a factor of 2 or 3x the BMW 3-series and MB S-class which are well established icons, and is already outselling the Lexus hatchback/sedan hybrids and the acrua TSX.. Also interesting that with the exception of the A4, the cars that outsold it cost more.. Clearly when it comes to upscale, price has less impact on sales. And if you want to think of it as a hybrid, it still did very well. This greencarreport noted : And the ones it did not outsell are 8-12k cheaper in price, and people focused on hybrids may not be willing to pay the same premium as those focused on upscale cars.
That answers the question of who. Clearly, the market isn't mainstream. Here's an unexpected: Thank you.
Your welcome, but actually, I answer questions directly, not with data provided/taken out of context. You are reading something into the post that is not being stated. Seems you like to jump to conclusions based on your views, not the actual statements. The fact that someone compared it vehicles of similar price does not answer what is the market. It was itself a answer to the question how does volt sales compare to similar priced cars.. Volt outsells half the cars on sale As I cited when I posted this is from the thread Volt Sales Compared to Similarly Priced Vehicles And that thread does not look at what it the intended market (only GM can really answer, and austingreen already provided a good link to that answer, see Volt's Target Buyers Are Techies, Not Greenies | Special: Chevy 100 - Advertising Age But where they start and what is the long-term "aim" is not the same thing. You sell the earlier adopters at a higher-price, and then lower it. When its price is lower, the "similarly priced" car list will be different. And of course the Prius PHV could be added to the above list.. at next to last. So as Austing asked you in the other tread.. is the Prius PHV failing in its target market? or would you agree that target markets are determined by the initial price?
The comparison of "upscale mid-size" cars" and Volt being in there is a bit goofy as the Volt isn't midsized (by EPA size classification) nor are many of the other vehicles there. The 1-series and Lexus IS are subcompacts. The ILX, 3-series, A4 are compacts. Actually, from glancing thru the list w/o looking all of them up, I'd say most on the list are compacts and subcompacts. Mercedes S-class is a goofy comparison too as it starts at $92K and is a large car. There's only so much of a market in the US for $92K+ cars w/engines ranging from 240 to 621 hp (621 hp costs $212K). Other than Chevy, virtually all of those brands sell very few cars in the US (August 2012: Big Jumps Edition). Perhaps it'd be more interesting to compare models with in a respective nameplate to their overall US sales (e.g. Volt vs. rest of Chevy vs. 3-series vs. rest of BMW). From http://media.gm.com/content/dam/Media/gmcom/investor/2012/GM_US_Deliveries_August_2012.pdf, Volt last month was 2831 sales out of Chevy's 169,978 or GM's 240,520. Per http://finance.yahoo.com/news/bmw-group-u-reports-august-175700715.html, 3-series was 6206 sales out of 16835 BMW brand sales or 22,553 of all of BMW (BMW + Mini).
not too shabby, but shouldn't we be comparing it to similarly priced vehicles after tax credit? i.e., $31,500. - $36,500.
then we would also need to do a comparison for similar lease prices as well. $10/day gotta love a car that saves you $10/day in gasoline and only costs you $10/day.
You certainly could do that. And the lease price as well. Each comparison may give you different information and tell you different things about how the Volt is selling. You could also compare it to the sales of other vehicles at the same point of the age of the model. None of these would give you the complete picture, but all would give you different and valuable data points.
New technology costs more money, the benefit is rarely seen by the mass market. Initial adopters often see this benefit, and are willing to pay that extra price. Many do not like change, and fight against it even when the price is lower. In the case of the plug-ins the government is helping to reduce cost to the consumers, before the price of technology drops. The cars should be compared to price after the tax credits, the proper cost to the consumers. For the majority of volt buyers this is the leased price, which is quite a bit lower than those other cars on the list. Let me clarify, I do not think the prius phv is failing its target market, only that its target is not the mass market. The phv fits in the customer space of initial technology adopters. Toyota needs it to stay current with technology. The Toyota slides are clear that range was chosen for the domestic (Japanese) market. In Japan the prius phv sells for $41K-$54K, a much higher price than america and it is the Japanese sales that may make up for its costs. I would expect Toyota to take what it has learned and lower battery prices to make he next generation better for the global market place.
