This fact already may have triggered another rant from Rush, expressing as only he can his desire for the Volt to fail.
In August, the Volt set a new monthly sales record at 2,831, beating by 24% the previous record of 2,289 vehicles in March 2012. Gas prices are fueling sales.
http://www.plugincars.com/chevy-volt-sales-soar-record-high-august-2012-nissan-leaf-still-struggling-124210.html. While the Volt had its best month ever, vehicle sales in the US were up strongly last month to an annual rate of 14.6 million, with GM up 10%; Chrysler 13%; and Ford 14%.
Word of mouth remains the most powerful form of consumer endorsement, and here's the latest from my sister who has driven a Volt since November 2011. Her Volt has gone over 10,000 miles, used a bit more than 30 gallons of gasoline, and averaged an "are-you-kidding-me" 354 miles per gallon.
Clare charges regularly at her home, her place of work, and her daughter's home. She has used public charging stations a handful of time at Baltimore Airport and University of Maryland at College Park.
She drives on electricity more than 90% of her miles traveled.
My sister reports only one mechanical problem with her Volt--it jams Rush's radio show.
John, those are quite impressive numbers, but I could not help but notice the same day you publish a post about impressive Volt sales, Mark Perry over at Carpe Diem posted about how GM is suspending production due to low sales.
ReplyDeletehttp://articles.marketwatch.com/2012-08-28/commentary/33446289_1_mileage-standards-electric-cars-fuel-standards
The factory is being closed down due to retooling for the 2014 Impala (very nice car). They had actually reduced their inventory by 100 days before the closure. For a truthful article about the closure and a pic of a nice car go to:
Deletehttp://www.autoweek.com/article/20120828/CARNEWS/120829843
The Volt is a failure as expressed by the non existent consumer demand in the marketplace. Government Motors ran out of GE employees who were forced to drive this "Rube Goldberg" contraption. If there was demand for such a product the government would not have to bribe people to purchase it by looting the treasury .
ReplyDeleteTo their credit, the web site FoxNation ran an article by Eric Rosenbaum which correctly reported the number of fleet sales for the Chevy Volt. They are running around 5%.
DeleteJohn, what has been the gasoline mpg-equivalent of your sister's volt? I'm pretty sure that Baltimore and College Park get a sizable share of their electricity from coal powered plants.
ReplyDeleteMy sister has solar at her home where most of the charging takes place. I have not looked at the Maryland fuel mix but would expect it to be similar to the national fuel mix, though with less hydro and wind. It has nuclear too. Maryland is part of the PJM regional power pool and its supply is not all from within Maryland.
ReplyDeleteMy sister has put 30 gallons of gasoline in the car since November 2011 and has driven more than 10,000 miles. It works out to more than 354 miles per gallon of gasoline consumed.
While the Volt has been the subject of many ill-informed attacks, it has been a highly unprofitable enterprise. I have posted what I believe to be the first detailed analysis of the Volt's profitability.
ReplyDeleteTHE BOTTOM LINE: even with generous assumptions, the first generation of the Chevrolet Volt will consume about $1 billion in federal tax credits, and STILL result in an economic loss to GM shareholders in excess of $600 million over its lifetime.Without the subsidies, the cumulative loss would triple to $1.8 billion.
http://senatorjohnblutarsky.blogspot.com/2012/10/voltonomics-detailed-analysis-of-chevy.html
$1 billion in tax credits is 133,000 cars. Fuzzy math. Conservative Anton Wahlman, who despises subsidies calls all this math harmful to the cause because it makes ya'll look foolish.
DeleteIt took the Prius 5 years to be profitable. In spite of Volt haters postings, Toyota received subsidies for the Prius. In fact, they just received another 300 bil. yen.
They are now very profitable and the demand for oil imports in Japan is down.
I'm so glad to see that more and more folks are opening their eyes to false reports such as the Reuters report that froze R & D at current units sold. Something that is just not done in the real business world.
Any numbers you give out are highly suspect. Methinks it's hatred that runs your world. People like you claim that the Volt sales are almost all leases, when in fact, they are running about 5% per FoxNation. Yet, you don't even report that BMW's USA sales are running at a true 60%. And BTW, I get 160 mpg at current gas prices in CA. $1.14 to charge, 43 mi.'s per charge, $4.30 per gal of gas. Try to do that math.