Chevy Volt Sales Continue to Disappoint

Last year, CEO Dan Akerson told Detroit News that if they can average 2,000 or 3,000 Chevy Volt sales a month, all the criticism of the Volt would “fade to black.” So let’s check in with some sales figures to see how the government subsidized, fire-prone car is doing. 

According to Autoblog, 1,788 Chevy Volts sold in July. Not only falling short of 2k in sales but very short of 3k in sales, the Nissan Leaf beat out the Volt with 1,864 sales last month.  So far to date, the Leaf is outselling the Volt with yearly totals of 11,703 (Leaf) and 11,643 (Volt). The Leaf is the electric car offered by Nissan.

But it get’s worse. In June, Chevy added an additional incentive of $5K on Volt sales. That incentive is on top of the already existing $7.5K government credit when purchasing the Volt. How in the world is the car making any money?

Reviewing the sales numbers over the last year, GM sold 7,671 Volts in 2011; 23,461 in 2012; and so far this year, 11,643 Volts. GM has five months left to sell 11,818 cars to make the sales merely even with 2012 numbers. This averages out to 2,364 cars a month, a huge increase from any monthly sales number in 2013 other than June, when the additional incentive was first offered. June was the best month this year for Volt sales, with 2,698 cars sold. Every other month this year is well below the 2,364 monthly sales necessary to match the 2012 numbers. However, the government might just swoop in and buy the cars up to boost the sales numbers (but not the profits.)

It’s not looking good for the General Motors taxpayer. Criticisms of the government’s intervention in General Motors may have “faded to black” mostly because the presidential campaign is over and other administration scandals are all over the radar, the company is sure “fading to red,” or rather just operating in the red straight out.

COMMENTS

Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.