I am a bit late this month with the numbers, due to illness and work hours, you are probably already aware of this, but the Chevrolet Volt is, once again, the number one selling plug-in electric vehicle in the United States. This was an amazing feat, especially since the Nissan Leaf‘s price drop earlier in the year drove increased interest and sales. The final tally on Volt vs. Leaf was 23,094 Volts and 22,610 Leafs. Compare that to 17,291 Chevrolet Corvettes and you get an idea of the importance of this feat. Admittedly, many Corvette sales were delayed by those waiting for the new C7 Stingray, but nonetheless, EVs are selling! BIG time! Oddly, the Plug-in Prius has been taking a nose dive over the previous two months (see top chart). I’ve never thought much of that EV, as it seems like too big a compromise (or too small a battery), so I’ll be watching it closely over the next few months. As you may know, Tesla does not announce sales figures monthly, so we won’t have their final tally until some time later in January. I will update that information as it becomes available. However, for Tesla’s Model S to pass Volt’s sales numbers, they would have to have averaged 1,935 units per month over the last three months of the year. That would be a 17% increase over their best quarter so far. It’s not an impossible feat, especially since the Leaf and Volt saw 25% increases December over November, but I’m doubtful they did that well. Time will tell.. Stay tuned. Next month, the charts will include the Cadillac ELR, which just became available in December. (If I’d added it in its first month, it would just be represented by a dot on the charts.)
Definitely, the end of the tax year brought out a lot of buyers interested in EVs and looking to reduce their tax expense this coming Spring. I received incoming calls that started with, “So tell me about this $7,500 tax deal.” Volt sales increased by 25% over the previous month (2,392 vs. 1,920) and Leaf sales increased 26% (2,529 vs. 2,003). That’s two months in a row the Leaf has outsold the Volt, by the way… In fact, until the last two months of the year the Volt and Leaf were tied at five months’ apiece as the leader. I think these two will be duking it out throughout 2014.
Another story that got a lot of traction last month was a futurist’s prediction that electric vehicles are going to be so disruptive, that gasoline-powered cars will be obsolete in 2016. Having seen the rabid interest in the new Corvette Stingray first hand, I’m thinking that is a bit optimistic, but we are approaching a tipping point. The lower graph definitely shows the Volt and Leaf sales curves increasing their slope when compared to the original Toyota Prius, and we know how ubiquitous the Prius has become. It’s easiest to see at the far right. The green (Volt) curve is pulling away from the black (original Prius) curve. Something big is happening here. As more people, like us, get first-hand experience with an EV and share our experience with our friends, some of them will be persuaded to join the club, and like the old shampoo commercial goes, “…and they tell two friends, and they tell two friends, and so on, and so on…”
After several months in the car business, I’ve gotten an inside view of the Volt’s sales. I came to Classic Chevrolet in order to sell Volts and am disappointed that I personally have only sold one so far. However I’ve gotten to observe the sales staff get fully behind the Volt and learn more about it in order to present new Volt owners with an amazing introduction to their EV. In fact, several salespeople here have bought Volts of their own. Nothing educates quite as well as first-hand experience.
I’ve got to crow a little about Classic Chevrolet. Classic has been the number one Chevrolet dealership in the nation since 2006. This year presented some challenges, such as the freeway construction on Texas highway 114. Before I went to work for Classic, I avoided this area because of all the construction traffic. We also had to deal with a December ice storm that shut the dealership down over a weekend and many of the staff contracting the flu in December. At the start of December, Classic was down 400 vehicles from the leading dealership. They, or uh, we made up the difference in one month to recapture the title by two vehicles. It was an amazing thing to see. I am proud to have been a part of that.
Another thing I should note: “My Electric Vehicle Journey” has 961 subscribers to date. Thank you all for your support!
