February 2017 Sales Numbers

February 2017 presented mixed results in plug-in vehicle sales. It’s always a difficult month to forecast, as the post-December hangover might, or might not, continue past January. One surprise, for me at least, was the decrease in sales of the Chevy Bolt EV. According to GM’s published roll-out schedule, three more states began to receive the Bolt EV, in February. They are Massachusetts, Maryland and Virginia. With the awards garnered by the Bolt EV, I expected additional states would mean additional sales. It is unclear to me, what the reason for the slowdown is, as I am in Texas and won’t have a Bolt, in stock, until August

Within the last week, I finally had an opportunity to drive the Bolt and found it to be exceptional (surprise, surprise). Two show cars were brought to us for charging and minor cosmetic repairs, in preparation for the Dallas Auto Show. I went to our Service Manager, Mike Zorn, and told him he needed to come experience the joy of EV. He climbed into the driver’s seat and drove into the Service area. I assumed he was going to pass through, to the back lot to plug it in. The chargers, in the Service area, were all occupied, so when he brought it back and parked in front of Electric Avenue, four Service Department members climbed out! Understand: these are all high-octane, big truck or sports car fans. It was so cool to see their obvious enthusiasm for the Bolt. They were impressed, indeed!

***HOLY COW!!!*** While writing this blog post, the Parts Manager just dropped in, asking if he could drive the Bolt! We aren’t allowed to test drive these two, as they are show cars, but his interest assured me the future will be bright for this EV.

Here are the February 2017 sales figures, compared to the previous month:

• Chevy Volt: UP 13% (1,820 vs. 1,611)
• Chevy Bolt EV: DOWN 18% (952 vs. 1,162)
• Nissan Leaf: UP 34% (1,037 vs. 772)
• Plug-in Toyota Prius: VIRTUALLY UNCHANGED (1,362 vs. 1,366)
• Tesla Model S: UP 94% (1,750 vs. 900) **estimated
• BMW i3: DOWN 17% (318 vs. 382)
• Ford Fusion Energi: UP 38% (837 vs. 606)
• Ford C-Max Energy: UP 35% (639 vs. 473)

In February, the average price of gasoline bottomed out at $2.26 per gallon, on the 7th and rose through the rest of the month, finishing at $2.32. The price began to rise quickly, after February 26th. Gas averaged $2.29 per gallon, over the month, which was just a slight increase over January’s average.February sales, for me at least, were still slow. Part of this was my move into the new EV & Hybrid Sales Center. Traffic was pretty low across the entire dealership and I had the additional challenge of moving, setting up and being in a building that had been closed for a couple months. Shortly before my move, we began a sell-off of “Courtesy Transportation Program” (or CTP) vehicles. CTPs are ‘loaners,’ provided to our customers by our Service Department, while the customers’ vehicles are being serviced. GM has a program in place that helps dealers do this and there are certain rules for the program. For instance, to qualify for an additional incentive, that varies with each type and trim level of vehicle, there is a minimum mileage/time in-service requirement. We try to rotate vehicles out of the program as early as possible, and mark down the prices accordingly. A huge number of these vehicles were removed from the program recently and, being in Texas, most of them are Tahoes, Suburbans, Traverses (all SUVs) and Silverado pickups. For customer convenience, we park all these vehicles in a “Clearance Center” parking lot. However, so many were released at once, that the lot in front of my new building, was a sea of SUVs. Fear not: our entire Volt and Malibu Hybrid stock was parked in front of the EV & Hybrid Sales Center, as well! As with any new home, there are bugs to work out, some things aren’t completely ready (like signage, although that got fixed yesterday) and methodologies. I have redesigned the sales process for the building, based on my experience at Apple. Very few salespeople were interested in the new building or new process, so my team is a pretty small one. However, I believe by October, there will be salespeople here that will wish they had jumped on the EV/hybrid bandwagon.

Yes, I have chugged the Kool-Aid.

But you knew that already…

I only had five sales for the month, including four SUVs and one Volt. I did not sell a single pickup, so the Volt continues to rise as my most popular vehicle (again, surprise, surprise).

Plug-in sales, compared to the same month a year ago, were up with only one exception. Last month that exception was the Ford Fusion Energi. I’m encouraged that, in a usually slow month, plug-in vehicle sales continue to rise, year-over-year. This was not true in February 2016, when compared to February 2015. The Chevy Volt, once again, took top honors with a total of 1,820 units sold, compared to the Tesla Model S’s volume (estimated) of 1,750 units.

• Chevy Volt: UP 62% (1,820 vs. 1,126)
• Chevy Bolt EV: (was not available in February 2016)
• Nissan Leaf: UP 2% (1,037 vs. 930)
• Plug-in Toyota Prius: UP 13,560% (1,362 vs. 6) **previous generation Prius plug-in, dying out last February
• Tesla Model S: UP 6% (1,750 vs. 1,550)
• BMW i3: DOWN 55% (318 vs. 248)
• Ford Fusion Energi: UP 4% (837 vs. 932)
• Ford C-Max Energi: UP 35% (639 vs. 490)

For those who have been reading my blog for a while, you may have noticed my posts have become more rare. I am working longer hours, to get the new building up and running and to build a team of like-minded EVangelists. I have the next few articles planned, but am a little short of time… Thanks for stopping by!