Chevy Volt Surpasses 2,200 Sales In March, Outsells Nissan Leaf Nearly 4:1
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The Chevrolet Volt sold a total of 2,229 units in the United States during March 2012, representing a 276.5 percent year-over-year increase in sales. For comparison, the Volt sold 1,023 units last month and 608 units in March 2011.
Several factors have most likely contributed to the jump in sales, the most prominent of which being Chevy’s new fact-oriented ad campaign starring real Volt owners, the availability of lower-emission Volts that allow single drivers to qualify for access to carpool lanes in California, and rising gas prices — which are nearly $5 per gallon in some parts of the country.
The Volt outsold its current primary rival — the pure-electric Nissan Leaf — at nearly a 4-to-1 ratio, as the Leaf only moved 579 units in March. The good news about the Volt spans countries and continents, since the Volt’s twin in Europe — the Opel Ampera — has over 7,000 pre-orders in Europe at the time of writing.
Furthermore, GM CEO Dan Akerson is bullish on the Volt’s future, saying, “Last month, we doubled sales from a net low, and this month looks like we could double again. The car is fundamentally a great value.”
“Nothing’s better than success to stop the discussion. If we get to 2,000 or 3,000 a month consistently for the rest of the year, it will all fade to black.”
The GM Authority Take
This is only the beginning. It’s just a shame that an excellent product like the Volt was tangled up in the political quagmire that we now all know about all to well. But if the Volt maintains the sales pace of 2,000 or more units a month, the sales will do the talking… rather than the talking heads.
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Great to see the Volt succeed, especially after the sobering news of suspending production.
Be sure though that the main rival to the Volt is not the LEAF, it’s the internal combustion engine cars. Success of either the Volt of the LEAF helps sales and awareness of the other.
Isnt the Toyota Prius electric it’s main competitor?
I don’t think the Plug-in-Prius is even available to actual consumers yet, and until it is there really is no direct comparison to the Volt. Nissan’s numbers help vindicate GM’s rational to go with the EREV concept vs. a BEV.
Prius plug in is coming very soon (Toyota says spring 2012), I’m more worried about the Fusion plug in – much better looking than the Prius and it’ll have a longer EV range than the Prius plug in and lower price than the Volt. Voltec 2.0 will hopefully be almost ready by the time that’s coming out, those envia batteries can’t come soon enough.
The Prius Plug-IN is not a threat, its not even a competitor, if it sells, it will be because of the prius and not through merit of its own.
Yes the fusion ev is a threat, but the volt has the unbeatable advantage of an unlimited range, unfortunately the public is unaware of this amazing technology that blows away any pure ev. Its sad how politics, NHTSA, bad advertising, and rollout problems hurt this great car. And at least two of those factors are of solely GM’s fault.