GM sells just 281 Chevy Volts in February, Nissan only moves 67 Leafs

See GM sells only 281 Volts in February.

Peruse Chevrolet's February sales release, and you'll notice one number that's blatantly missing: the number of Chevy Volts sold. The number – a very modest 281 – is available in the company's detailed data (PDF), but it certainly isn't something that GM wants to highlight, apparently. Keeping the number quiet is a bit understandable, since it's lower than the 321 that Chevy sold in January. Nissan doesn't have anything to brag about here, either (and it didn't avoiding any mention of the Leaf sales in its press release). Why? Well, back in January, the company sold 87 Leafs. In February? Just 67. Where does that leave us? Well, here's the big scorecard for all sales of these vehicles thus far: * Volt: 928 * Leaf: 173

Hey all greens! Do your duty! Get out there and buy a Volt darn it! What are you waiting for? I thought you all wanted your electric car powered by wind farms -- yet I see you are not putting your money where your mouths are! Calling all greens! Calling all greens!

Heh. Funny isn't it. Maybe people have figured out that Volts are actually "coal fired cars" (depending on the area of the country, the electricity for the cars was produced by coal fired plants).

reply to post by SunSword
This can be solved lickety-split.

Obama just needs to write a Green Car bill and present it to Congress. The bill would mandate that everyone buy a Leaf or Volt. If you don't buy one, you go to jail.

It was okay for healthcare, why not for cars too?

Yep, buy insurance or go to jail, set the precedent, then mandate buy a GM car or go to jail....

Wouldn't this be nice?

Originally posted by butcherguy
reply to post by SunSword

 

This can be solved lickety-split.

Obama just needs to write a Green Car bill and present it to Congress. The bill would mandate that everyone buy a Leaf or Volt. If you don't buy one, you go to jail.

It was okay for healthcare, why not for cars too?

Electric cars are neat novelty items and have a place in our world, but its not on the roads. Until they can travel 500+ miles on a charge and there is a profitable infrastructure operated by free enterprise, they are useless except on a golf course.

Now if the TPTB get their way, we will be issued an electric car if you are appointed to a position that requires individual transit. Otherwise you will have to take the "obamatrain" to work at your local labor camp.

Let's be honest...

We all know that electric cars will never be the way to go as long as Big Oil has us by the "spheres."
We're going to be squeezed of all of our wealth for every last damned drop of oil on this planet before we transition to anything other than the fuel-injected motor engine.

There just isnt enough infrastructure for them to go wide scale yet. Give it a few years the prices will come down and they'll be more charging stations these cars are the future just takes time.

reply to post by SunSword


I wouldnt mind having one, BUT, they cost too freakin much at this time...
Plus, the new Leaf has to have a charging station built at your house by Nissan
and they have to approve it first, you also have to pay for the said charging station
and it only goes 100miles per charge..
Right now the best alternative is the Prius, it can go almost 600 miles per tank of gas.

reply to post by SunSword


My friend was one of the 281. About a month ago we're going out and he's driving the new Volt. Cool. We're getting on the highway and he's got the pedal all the way down and as we're merging on, cars are coming up behind us and pretty much locking it up to not rear end us as our speed is increasing about 1 mph every 3 seconds. The floor was vibrating so much as we were driving at about 50 mph, my legs fell asleep. We get to our destination and I get out of the car and my legs collapsed like a house of cards because they were essentially numb from the knees down.

I'll not get into that ride again

reply to post by SunSword

Do your duty! Get out there and buy a Volt darn it! What are you waiting for?

What I'm waiting for is for someone to lend me the $40,000++++ it coasts to buy one of these!!!
Dont get me wrong I'd love one but lets be real a new caddy is cheaper!

In the case of the Leaf, it's only been for sale a couple of states and there are many preorders. Supply can't meet demand. The Volt may been same situation.

edit:
California, Washington, Oregon, Tennessee, and Arizona are supposed to be the initial market for Leaf.

The in-house charging station will set you back several thousand dollars. That plus the high initial cost means you're looking at about $50K for a ride not much bigger than a SmartCar. I would think a 200 mile range would attract a lot of buyers, though. I don't think it has to be 500+. My gas car has a range of less than 300 and that's not a problem.

reply to post by schuyler


I don't think it's going to cost $10k for charge station, more like $3k.

Originally posted by PplVSNWO
reply to post by schuyler

 

I don't think it's going to cost $10k for charge station, more like $3k.

My son actually had this priced out and he told me the installed price was $8,000. I suspect a lot has to do with what your existing infrastructure at your location looks like. If your circuit box is already filled up, you;d have to add capacity. If it was already enough, you;d just tap off the power that was available and it would be a lot cheaper.

reply to post by schuyler


Somebody is taking advantage, there is no way it should cost that much for installation. Here's a conspiracy for you, the Nissan dealer here is not allowed to put a charge station outside because of some agreement with the businesses that are getting them. The service dept. can only have one inside for charging stock vehicles and for customer repair purposes, not for public use.

Edit:
right on Nissan's site is says it should cost $2000 plus licensensing fees minus whatever tax incentives.
Link
It only requires a 40amp 220volt circuit. Most homes should not need any upgrades to electrical service unless they are already maxed.

Originally posted by SunSword
Get out there and buy a Volt darn it! What are you waiting for?

Just a guess here, but I'd wager that many are waiting for a bit more financial stability.

In case you hadn't noticed... cost of living is rising by the hour, and wages haven't. The official unemployment numbers have been flawed for a long time, and those lucky enough to have jobs, by and large, don't exactly feel much of a sense of job security. 30-40k is a fine automotive price point when there's a flourishing middle class; however, the middle class has been under heavy assault over the past decade. Couple that constricting vice-grip with the infrastructure issues for electric cars, and it's simply not the best timing for the volt's release.

Originally posted by butcherguy
reply to post by SunSword

 

This can be solved lickety-split.

Obama just needs to write a Green Car bill and present it to Congress. The bill would mandate that everyone buy a Leaf or Volt. If you don't buy one, you go to jail.

It was okay for healthcare, why not for cars too?

LOL yes but... That would mean that currently only 364 people in the entire country would *not* be going to jail!

Edit: Could you imagine the prisons overcrowding problems??

reply to post by schuyler


Should point out many older neighbourhoods cant supply three phase 440 for that charger station...
8 grand could quickly climb if you had to add comercial grade voltage inverters

reply to post by DaddyBare


The household charge stations do not run on 440, that is commercial only. The house models run on a 220v 40amp circuit. It's right on Nissan's faq I linked to in my last post.

reply to post by PplVSNWO


I'm sorry. I was talking about the Volt. Don't know if that makes a difference. I didn;t catch that you were dicussing the Leaf.

The Volt shouldn't cost more, they have the same plugs so they should be able to run on the same charging station. I searched for some and found them being sold for $700. You can even get them with credit card slots built in.