August Sales.. Volt leads the pac new overall sales record, Leaf and PIP set records too.

August 2013 Dashboard - HybridCars.com

 

I duno ... isn't this premature? Tesla only gives out sales figures quarterly - and based on no dealer mark downs by Tesla - and their prior quarterly numbers, odds are it's actually Tesla that leads the pac ... if in fact they do as well as last quarter. All indicators show they're doing as well if not better than last quarter ... even though Tesla took production time off, as pointed out in the OP link. This is pretty dang amazing considering how much higher their price point is.
But hey!!! GM sold over 100 Spark EV's. They better get busy building out their frankenplug infrastructure with numbers like that.
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InsideEVs seemed to guestimate last quarter dead on to the figures tesla ended up anouncing. There guess for August was 1300 cars. So you are correct the numbers are likely wrong, but Tesla likely exported some of the cars that hybridcars assumed for US production. Hybrid cars greatly overestimated US sales for tesla last quarter.

Key for tesla outpacing expectations is production numbers, not just shipments to the US. Tesla now is taking some of the production for Europe, and later in the year will also be shipping to Asia. That means US numbers will go down until suppliers like Panasonic can keep up with demand. Panasonic simply can't even provide enough battery cells for tesla to build as many cars as chevy sold in the US last month. They will fix the problem next year.
Panasonic Set to Invest $204 Million to Up Lithium-Ion Battery Production
Then again a second source is always a good idea in automotive.
Tesla Motors Likely To Start Buying Batteries From Samsung (As Well As Panasonic) | CleanTechnica

 

In any case, Hybrids+PHEVs+EVs = 4.5% of the sales in the USA and growing faster than regular car sales.

Few members suggested earlier that there is no way it would go over 3% as if it is some kind of limit someone imposed... when pricing and features align, hybrids sell (and PHEVs and EVs).

 

New PIP owner here chiming in to shed some light on this. Toyota started offering $7300 in lease cash on the PIP in August, making it cheaper to lease than a base Prius C.

Chevy had a great month with the Volt, but the PIP also had a great showing considering it's limited geographical availability, and tight supplies in those states it is offered.

 

Thanks ZH for the reply. What state do you live in? Did you lease or buy?

OK but you are sort of confirming what I was saying: it is the extraordinary low cost leasing activity causing the Aug bump, and no one has yet shot me down on the hypothesis we are seeing in Aug the sales to leasee middlemen who perhaps have not actually leased the cars to consumers in Aug.

I never liked these monthly sales stats too much

Actually I was expecting 5% hybrids and PHEV on the road by now, we are closer to 1% of the vehicle population, possibly rounding up to 2% by end the year, if we are lucky.

 

Yeah don't get me started how exasperating it is - that the pip is sold in so few markets

 

Nice to see Toyota is finally passing along the federal rebate in leases (almost all of it at least).

 

Growth year over year ytd (january-august)
Total vehicles 9.6%
Hybrids (not including phevs) 23.9%
plug-ins 131% (using the more conservative inside ev estimates of teslas)

That is impressive growth on plug-ins and hybrids.

We should not blame limited availability on slow sales of the phev. Toyota consciously decided to slow the roll out multiple times. Toyota and its dealers don't seem to want to sell these cars, they just seemed to want to get a lot of the old ones off the lot this last month. I don't think you need a 50 state roll-out, as some states simply will have dealers with inventory sitting on the lot, but Toyota could easily, and likely more profitably roll them out to at-least the top 5 states for plug-ins Maybe as dealers see potential prius customers go to other brands, and corporate sees the over 100% growth in plug-ins, Toyota will get with it. 2000/month should be a mediocre month, not an record one for the prius phv. The record is 1889 in October of 2012. There is no reason toyota can't beat that low bar.

 

I am in NY and I leased. The lease cash was larger than the sum of Toyota's purchase cash rebate + federal rebate.

I am fairly well versed in the car industry in general, and I have never personally heard of leasing to middlemen being a big issue. I'm not saying it doesn't happen, just that I've never heard of it before.

Anecdotally I can say that I'm seeing a lot more PIP's, LEAF's and Volt's on the road this summer than I ever have before, so the cars are certainly getting out there in larger numbers.

 

you mean, no reason apart from lackluster marketing/mediocre desire to push the PiP as though gas supplies were not going to last in perpetuity.
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There is no market reason. The car should be selling better if they simply had the marketing of gm on the volt, and that has been D level marketing.

Toyota corporate as well as dealers seem to want poor sales. Easy things to do.

Produce a prius phv in II trim. Don't force customers to buy something they don't want in order to get a plug in. Nissan changed the configurations after getting feedback from customers. Putting the trims that customers want will likely reduce the need for discounting. The initial pricing was too high, that should drop, ASP to customers by doing both may actually go up.

Add 5 more states, the best states. Picking CARB states instead of the states that the thing will sell well in seemed stupid from the start, but back then it sounded like a bigger roll out was due soon. Texas, Florida, and Ohio are all big states for plug-ins, and toyota has plants in texas and ohio.

Put out some youtube or other internet videos promoting the phv, and how much less gas it will use than a typical car. Internet advertising is cheap, and adopters definitely are likely to see internet content.

Give dealers a bounty of say $8,000 if they sell over 12 in 2 months, or whatever incentive is appropriate. Right now dealers seem to just not want the plug. Why is the RAV4 EV only in 4 cities?


Do those 4 things and 2000 car months should be easy. Keep putting out press releases about how great fuel cells are and how no one wants a electric car, and watch market share slowly move to other companies that get it.

 

Good numbers overall with the Volt. Let's also recognize the profitable Silverado @ 43,603 is in the top 10 best sellers for Aug. 2013. Sales of the Silverado help Chevys' bottom line in the corp. profit arena. This helps offset the negative cash flow currently with the Volt.

Hopefully, Chevy products keep posting increased sales numbers.

This can only be a win/win situation for the Volt.

Top 10 Best-Selling Cars: August 2013 - KickingTires


DBCassidy

 

Isn't that like hoping GM sales of every one of their land barges goes thru the roof? Why not hope in stead, that pickup sales crash, and that the 80% - 90% that don't really need a land barge will in stead go out & buy a Chevy Cruz -

 

I am hoping these suckers keep buying gas guzzlers. Someone has to pay for road tax. I rather these gas guzzlers keep supporting these efforts than having Prius/PHV/EV owners subsidize the tax to support government "stuff".

Remember when gas was all time high in 2008? Government was raking in taxes.

 

i'm not the type to sponsor blowing through a limited resource so politicians can waste more tax money

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The PIP is already effectively a III with a plug and a $6k premium. Cutting the content and the price by $1500 wouldn't have moved these in any appreciably larger numbers. The msrp is just too high. Our local dealer who sells Prii by the bucket couldn't move these for months. Once the incentives were upped, they sold out in a couple of weeks and had a long waiting list. As much as I like the plug-in aspect, and truthfully would not have bought a Prius without it, it will save a relatively small amount of gas over a regular Prius for most people, so the premium has to be much smaller. I think the PIP can support a premium of $1500, maybe $2500 max, over a comparably equipped Prius. Beyond that is going to be a hard sell.

The RAV4 EV is a compliance vehicle being sold at a significant loss. They have no incentive to increase distribution.

I agree though that Toyota could be pushing the PIP more in marketing. Even if the reality is that it will save relatively little fuel, the mileage numbers would make good advertising.

 

No, do not think short term but instead long term from a corporate management view point. Too many posters in PC are raving about instant monthly sales numbers, IE: short term.

Rather, long term in market gain, penetration, new consumer desires, and customer retention.

Whether you accept it or not, the Volt needs the profit making products to ensure its' survival. That means robust Silverado sales. Also Cruze and Impala sales also contribute to firming up the Volts' marketplace position.

Without the above products selling, the Volt demise will come sooner, rather than later.

The GM bean counters will make sure of that. They report to the board members. The board members present to the CEO, and the CEO faces the stockholders at the annual stockholders convention.

Can you guess where this is going? Thats' right - the bottom line and the ROI.

GM, in case there are any posters in PC, don't see or acknowledge the fact: GM is in the business of making money.

What a earth shattering revelation!

DBCassidy

 

I didn't say not to cut the MSRP, I said to cut it. It simply was too high to begin with, and all of these seem to be selling at a significant discount except to suckers.

Well there is the tax credit. If you are selling it as a $1500 premium than it actually will cost less to the consumer. IMHO drop it to a II level, sell that one for a MSRP $3500 above the prius II, add Texas, Florida, and Ohio, train the dealers to sell them, and allow them to negotiate, and sales would be much higher.

Of course they do. They are selling it only at a very limited number of locations, IIRC 4. Get it to more people and they would not need to discount it as much. They need to sell a certain amount to get feedback. They are treating the thing like a red headed step child, then whining like a spoiled brat that no one wants to buy them.

To me it would be to primarily get dealers involved so when an improved pip comes in 2015 that fixes some of the short comings, sales can take off.

 

Yep, the heat (pressure, competition) is on. May be part of GMs' Tesla committee to try to move more product in an increasing crowded playing field. Also, Volts returning off lease to dealers' lots adds more pressure to move product.

DBCassidy