A small bout of the flu can’t stop me…well, not for long, anyway. Here’s the update with the Tesla numbers. Tesla is not breaking out US sales as a separate line item. Do we continue to monitor it, using guesses? PUT AWAY THOSE KEYBOARDS! It was a rhetorical question. It’s an important enough vehicle that I think we have to continue to monitor it. I like that Tesla wants to change everything, but a nice, uniform (with other auto manufacturers) financial reporting scheme would be nice. Now Tesla knows what I want for Christmas…well, that and a new Model S 85 Performance Plus.
The numbers are in for April 2014. Gasoline prices have been creeping up since hitting a recent low around November of last year. I think it’s starting to hit the pain threshold for some people, as I am hearing more and more bring up the subject of gas prices. In fact, for the first time ever, I sold two Volts in one month. However, I think the price of gas is just beginning to have an effect. There hasn’t been a big rush on EVs in the previous month’s numbers.
The Chevy Volt’s sales increased just 5% over the previous month (1,548 vs. 1,478) and 19% over the previous April (1,548 vs. 1,306). The Nissan Leaf’s sales dropped by 17%, compared to the previous month (2,088 vs. 2,507) however, it showed an increase over April 2013 of 8% (2,088 vs. 1,937). The Plug-in Prius saw a hefty increase of 20% over the previous month (1,741 vs. 1,452) and a whopping increase of 191% of its sales the previous April (1,741 vs. 599)! Despite this jump, it’s obvious from the lower graph that the Plug-in Prius is not enjoying the same adoption rate as the original Prius, with its pink curve steadily losing ground to the black one. Notice the sudden acceleration of the black curve in the lower graph? The original Prius’ sales hit a temporary peak of 2,532 units sold in its 34th month of availability and quickly went into a severe decline (1,457 to 1,233 to 1,069 to 657 to 299 to 112) before suddenly rebounding to 4,085 in its 41st month. Once this rebound began, the original Prius’ monthly sales never again dropped below 2,900 in its first 67 months of availability. In fact, there were a couple months (#58 & #59) where its sales were over 10,000 units! I’m looking forward to a similar tipping point for plug-in vehicles… The Corvette, which I’ve used as an example of a successful vehicle posted a 1% increase in sales over the previous month, but it appears its sales are being hampered by availability. Every Stingray that has arrived at our dealership was sold within a week, with most of them sold before they ever got here. The Cadillac ELR posted a 25% decline in its meager sales numbers (61 vs. 81). Sales volume this low makes it easy for the ELR to show a precipitous drop or rise in sales. Even in its first month of availability, the Chevy Volt sold over 300 units, so I’m wondering if we’re starting to see the death of the ELR. Cadillac is definitely doing more on the marketing side of things than Chevrolet has done with the Volt, including a Super Bowl commercial that was widely panned as obnoxious or arrogant. In my opinion, the biggest issue with the ELR is its price. At around $75K, it competes with the Tesla Model S, which is currently considered by many to be the gold standard of EVs. Customers I’ve spoken with, who have actually driven the ELR give it high marks, so my thinking is the price tag is preventing most people from even going to a dealership to give it a try. Finally, Tesla has announced the date they will release the previous quarter’s Model S sales numbers: May 7th, after the close of the stock market. I’ll update this post with Tesla’s numbers that day.
