While the 2015 Chevrolet Volt bides its time until it can be replaced by its younger 2016 brother in the North American market later this year, its suffered a bit of an upset from its biggest plug-in EV challenger in the US: the Nissan Leaf.
For the first time in about 3 years, says Green Car Reports, the Nissan Leaf has surpassed the Chevy Volt in terms of total US sales numbers since December of 2010.
December 2010 is, of course, the month in which both the Leaf and the Volt became available for purchase in the US market. But what’s behind this hand-off of the title of plug-in EV sales king? Well for one, the first-generation Chevrolet Volt is preparing to exit the market, making way for a newly redesigned second-generation model. That almost invariably leads to lowered sales for any automotive model.
But then, one must also consider that the 2015 Volt bases at around $4,000 more than the 2015 Leaf, at $34,345 versus $29,010. Neither is near as cheap as the utmost entry-level petrol-burning cars on the market, but those thousands of dollars are still enough to make an impact.
According to Green Car Reports, the sales tallies from late 2010 through March of 2015 sit at 76,407 units of the Nissan Leaf, versus 75,231 units of the Chevrolet Volt. Despite this, you’d be hard-pressed to argue that the first-generation Chevrolet Volt didn’t have a tremendously successful run on the market. We can’t wait for the 2016 model.
Comments
The Leaf finally gets the last laugh, but it IS still a BULLSHIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well of coarse, most now (are) going to wait and buy the 2016 Volt. Ask yourself, go ahead, wouldn’t you?
The war has just begun!
I still can’t believe Chevy sold a single hybrid fourr seater at 35 to 40k.