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production problems kill hybrid sales

Discussion in 'Prius, Hybrid, EV and Alt-Fuel News' started by austingreen, Jun 5, 2011.

  1. austingreen

    austingreen Senior Member

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    May 2011 Dashboard: Supply Pinch Sends Hybrid Sales into Freefall | Hybrid Cars

     
  2. spwolf

    spwolf Senior Member

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    wow at leaf outselling Volt 3x1.
     
  3. Skoorbmax

    Skoorbmax Senior Member

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    I'm not actually convinced GM wants to sell any Volts.

    Sales by month for past few:

    Jan 321
    Feb 281
    Mar 608
    Apr 493
    May 481

    There's no way demand for this vehicle can be higher than it is now (at least at current price). There's new vehcile buzz, some advertising early on (I see none for it now), and gas prices are very high. Thus, either with these factors people still do not actually want to buy the thing (regardless of what apparent time-on-lot numbers tell), or GM doesn't want to/can't produce more than it is.

    "at least one GM representative has reportedly admitted that the Volt's problem is soft demand, not low production."

    http://green.autoblog.com/2011/06/03/chevy-volt-sales-whats-going-on/

    I'm looking forward to the Leaf being available in NY. As I've just purchased another Nissan I think i can shoehorn myself into a test drive even without pretending I'm about to buy one.
     
  4. hill

    hill High Fiber Member

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    Yea, the irony of it all. Spin at its best. The same article could be titled:
    They can build TONS of regular ol' fashion cars ... (heavy/poorer mpg ... and/or even tiny non-hybrid cars) and they just sit on the lots, building up as inventory ... but the hybrids ... they can't keep up with production.

    .
     
  5. spwolf

    spwolf Senior Member

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    how are they going to sell those 16k this year? Or 60k next year?
     
  6. spwolf

    spwolf Senior Member

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    how are they going to sell those 16k this year? Or 60k next year?
     
  7. Skoorbmax

    Skoorbmax Senior Member

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    I guess the short answer is they won't. Even the more pessimistic numbers for Volt sales during year 1 are, by my estimation, impossible now to achieve and will be off massively.

    This says GM is upping goals from 12 to 16k for the year:

    http://venturebeat.com/2011/06/01/nissan-leaf-volt-sales/

    I don't see how, but anyway, I guess I don't run GM.
     
  8. SageBrush

    SageBrush Senior Member

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    10k sales a year sounds quite doable; 15k sales a year optimistic; and 60k sales a year -- LOL
     
  9. spwolf

    spwolf Senior Member

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    to even reach 10k a year, they need to start doubling sales next month.
     
  10. spwolf

    spwolf Senior Member

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    heck, they have to tripple the sales from next month in order to get 10k.