The Chevy Volt’s shocking sales: Only 281 electric cars sold in February

Question: What’s the only thing that takes longer than charging a Chevy Volt? Answer: Selling all 10,000 Volts they’ve committed to build.

The latest sales figures tell a common liberal morality tale: They come up with some wacky socialist scheme and attempt to force it down the gaping gullets of the American people. In the unfortunate case of the Volt, it doesn’t look like even the most liberal of environmental lunatics will spend their own money on it.

The Washington San Francisco Examiner explains:

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, 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.

Note that it’s also lower than the 326 that sold in December. There are about 9,200 left to sell.

326 sold in December. 321 sold in January. 281 sold in February. Please allow us to use those sales figures to extrapolate a projected sales chart for the rest of 2011.

Yes, you’re reading the chart correctly. At the rate sales are plummeting, zero Volts will be sold in September leaving Government Motors with about 7,000 oversized door stops.

chevy-volt-sales-chart

Source: San Francisco Examiner

This post was last modified on January 26, 2021

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View Comments (176)

  • You are so far behind the times!  The house fire was put to rest by the fire marshal and the utility company.  The Volt did not start the fire.  The interior of the car was not burned.  in fact, after the article that you allude to was written, it was revealed that the charging station was sending warning messages to Duke Energy.

    The fire investigators proved the fire started in another location where gas was being stored.  Duke Energy lifted the ban on charging as soon as the Fire Marshal made his report.  That was almost a year ago!  Catch up!

    The two fires at the NHTSA were coolant fires that spread to the battery.  Wow.  Even Fox News dropped that one a while back.

    http://blogs.newsobserver.com/crosstown/dont-blame-chevy-volt-or-home-charger-for-house-fire-duke-and-progress-say-0

    That's not even a nice try.

    Payback time 30 years! I think I'll trust The Kiplinger Investment Group. They've been comparing car operating costs long before the Volt came out. I'm already under $30,000 and subtracting $1,800 every year. And why you don't hate all subsidies is beyond me. You just hate one. That makes you a hypocrite

    The Car savvy Europeans named the Volt & Ampera cars of the hear. The first American car ever to receive that award. I am not rationalizing anything. I am pointing out FACTS that that you are not aware of.

    Even if the tax credit was a subsidy, each tax payer's share for my Volt is 4/1000 of a penny. I am spending $100 more every month in the economy. I bet the businesses I visit are happy to see me! If you want your 4/1000 of a penny, give me your address and I'll try to shave off a fleck and mail it to you. Even if it costs me 11,500 times more to mail it to you.

    I think just one carrier group keeping the Straits Of Hormuz open so you can buy your subsidized gas costs you more than my Volt.

  • George Bush wasn't my idiot in chief, but I'm glad he signed the EV tax credit. So is his father, who, by the way, bought a Chevy Volt.
     
    And before you complain about me getting back my tax dollars that I paid (that's what a tax credit is), complain about the subsidies given to foriegn auto makers operating in this country and the subsidies given to big oil. They hurt you a lot worse than any credit that I get on my own taxes.
     
    You may have already known how the EPA estimates mpg, but you didn't know how the Volt acts in the real world. That is why you don't believe fine folks like MPGomatic and real Volt owners when they say they get better than 40 mpg. You are happy with the numbers that suit your mold you are trying to fit the Volt into, truth be damned!
     
    And there you go again! "The Volt is not ready for public consumption". I guess the people who gave the Volt 6 major "Car Of The Year" awards and the SAE are a bunch of dumb $hit$, along with the folks at Motorweek who named it Drivers Choice, Best Of Year. They should start reading your blog, so they know who they are dealing with!
    　
    Also, the Kiplinger group states that the Volkswagen Golf TDI (diesel), which costs $15,000 less than the Volt would cost only $3,000 less to operate, after 5 years, than the Volt .... BEFORE THE TAX CREDIT. That puts the Golf $4,000 behind the Volt after only 5 years. Keep that car 20 years and you will be $60,000 behind me!
     
    And you shouldn't be surprised that the VW diesel doesn't compete with the Volt. The Ampera took 1st place in the Monte Carlo Alternative Energy Rally, which included all types of alternative fuel automobiles, including the best diesels and hybrids. In fact, the Ampera took 4 out of the top 10 places.

    Chevy Volt / Ampera, 2012 European Cars Of The Year.

    • Car Of the Year awards are not a good basis for judging a vehicle's worth. The 1991 Chevy Caprice, for example, was Motor Trend Car of the Year. Volt lover, you are twisting yourself into a pretzel defending your little subsidized car. You rationalize to the point of absurdity. Bringing up other subsidized things like foreign auto plants etcetera does not validate or legitimize anything, your tax credit is offset somewhere else - either added to the national debt or paid by others, and your claim of saving money is a farce since the payback time on your car's price premium is almost 30 years.

      • He's hoping that by that time, it will be considered a classic and qualify for those cool "antique" plates!
        Provided it doesn't blow up, burn up, or fall apart before that.

        • It is a GM product chances are it won't last 30 years. He probably won't be able to afford the necessary battery replacements either. The car will become a static display illustrating the "power" of crony capitalism.

  • Here we go again is right. You will be spreading a lie for 10 years about a Chevy Volt battery exploding, when, in fact, no battery exploded. The battery was still intact. It was not a Volt battery, and in fact, it was an experimental battery. And once again, the battery DID NOT EXPLODE. IT WAS STILL INTACT. But you don't care about that fact, do you?
    http://www.torquenews.com/106/update-gm-lab-explosion-didnt-involve-chevy-volt-battery

    Also, the Kiplinger Investment Group states that after 5 years, a $20,000 Honda Accord LX will cost $35,000 to operate. This includes depreciation, insurance, gas cost, MTV., etc. They take EVERYTHING into consideration. The Chevy Volt will cost $29,800.

    The Kiplinger Investment group is one of the most, if not the most respected investment advisor groups in the world. That's where I go to get my info.

    Oh, and I forgot to say in my last post that my ENTIRE electric bill for my household plus my car was $80. That's with 678 miles driven. My Volt paid my electric bill plus it put another $51 in my pocket.

    And the math for the Volt mpg is not wrong. Since you are such a brilliant car buff, you should know that the EPA uses dyno's and flow meters to determine mpg. The Volt can not perform as in the real world on a dyno. In the real world, the Volt reverts to EV for short periods of time when in extended mode. Such as coasting, at stops, downhill driving, etc. Mpgomatic has been driving cars and reporting real world mpg long before the Volt came out. The 43 mpg stands. Why don't you even try to check out their report. There are several other groups reporting more than 40 mpg. That wouldn't fit in your world, though, would it?

    And the SAE named the Volt Best Engineered Car. I'll try to find an address for the world renowned group of automotive engineers to tell them that next time they want to give the Volt an award, they should consult Sidekick first.

    And what will I do when Obama shuts down electricity (such imaginations!)? I'll put solar on my roof. What will you do? It takes 70 billion kwh's of ELECTRICITY to make gas. What did you think? WOW!

    • So, 2-1/2 hours later, after more news was available, you are correcting me with info that wasn't available at the time of the original reports?
      I never said that it was a Volt battery, learn to read.

      From your article:

      First off, reports indicated early on that there were two workers injured and while one was treated locally, the other received life-threatening injuries and was sent to a Detroit hospital. Now that the smoke has cleared, we have learned that there were actually five GM workers injured in the blast with four of them individuals being treated as the scene while the fifth made a trip to a local hospital. However, none of those injuries were life-threatening.

    • I'm very happy for you, Dolt Lover. Living in such a LaLaLand must be very nice and peaceful. As a matter of fact, there ARE some people here at IHTM that DO know a few things about cars, most likely quite a bit more than you do. We already know how the E.P.A. estimates mileage, we don't need you to tell us.

      The Dolt DOESN'T sell for $29,000, it sells for $41,000. Your Idiot-in-Chief just managed to get the rest of to pay the difference.

      Nobody here said that it was a Dolt battery that exploded, it was just another random battery in the quest to find a good one. Which hasn't happened yet, but they seem to already be selling cars, (at least a few), regardless of the fact that they are NOT yet ready for public consumption.

  • The detail that escapes people like you is that you have to add the price of gas to the ICE car. Cuts the recoup time in half. My final price was $32,500. In 5 years, that's $22,500. In 5 years, the cheapest 4 banger is $25,000.

    • It's cheaper to do what I do, keep a car for about forever. Not only that it's actually greener because power and resources aren't being used to create a car, ship the car, the insurance is cheaper and I have a $0 car payment. My current ride has about 320,000 miles on it and frankly I haven't spent a ton on it either. If gas goes up I'm still ahead, plus I didn't suck off the government tit getting rebates, which is about the only way they can sell those shitpiles anyway.

    • "People like you..." In the case of Sidekick, you're talking about someone makes a living working for auto manufacturers. I'd wager that he's forgotten more about this stuff than you can ever hope to know.

  • Volt sold 2,200+ in March. 7,000 in Europe. Gas is now $4 & predicted to be $5 this summer. I drove 678 miles / 0 gas in Feb. 715 miles / 2 gallons in March. My new name is 145 mpg Volt Lover. When gas hits $5, it will be 166 mpg Volt Lover.

    And why you guys are still on the 2 coolant fires is beyond me. Even Fox News moved on from that! In fact, Fox News is now raving about the Volt! They now love it ... here's proof!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEia_qc3MWo&feature=youtube_gdata_player

    OK haters, have at it.

    • Spieckerman makes some good points.. shifting to coal--via proxy of electricity--which we have in great abundance, is a sound component of an energy strategy..

      • even WND says (just days ago) that existing coal plants aren't affected by new emissions regulations, just new ones.

        Might as well burn as much coal as we can. I'd prefer that to bleeding billions out for foreign oil. If we could squeeze liquid fuel out of coal cheaply enough, i'd say go for it, but I'm thinking electricity wins out.

        Sure they gotta bring the price of batteries down. I'd also like to see cost of securing our foreign oil supplies go down too

        • Batteries are very expensive and very hard to properly dispose off after they have been exhausted. This is not the long-term answer to private transportation.

          • I view it as an engineering problem, like most others (even hydraulic fracturing falls in this category, given certain constraints: e.g. water tables, etc..)

            My neighbor is a materials scientist and PhD candidate, and while his work involves nanoscale hydrolyzing membranes or some such shit, he is absolutely assured of some game changing development in auto battery tech within the decade..

            The stuff his company is involved in is just beyond me (helps that he's 10 years younger)--they are poised to ramp up hydrogen production efficiency by a whole order of magnitude. I point this out to counter charges that he's locked in an ivory tower. He works and has kids to feed like i do.

            My faith in R&D is absolutely f-king blind. However, my faith in our ability to subsidize the transaction cost of the global oil market is fraying. We hardly ever factor that in. We secure dangerous markets for China, Russia, et al.. at great cost to taxpayers

          • I agree with every word of your post. My issue with the Volt is far more related to the government subsidization at the expense of tax payers and other auto manufacturers. The government does not innovate it eliminates competition. The battery problems will be solved but in the meantime millions of dirty expensive batteries are being produced and their disposal issues and costs are being aborbded by tax payers.

          • That is a fair point. It is a massive dirty battery experiment subsidized by taxpayers, with a bit of social engineering thrown in for good measure. I might argue that the calculation involves getting a fleet on the road--both in order to flush out issues, and to proselytize a larger number of consumers. Taken by itself, the Volt is an iteration which generally involves subsidizing the costs of those well-to-do who don't really need the assistance. However i'm reminded of similar subsidies, at far greater scale, going to entire industries involving many more zeros (naked Oil subsidies being a tangled one, for instance).

            The proselytism itself garners much variation in response, however. I can dig that. I'm willing to be creeped out to a certain degree, if we end up drastically reducing our need to buy (and secure) oil from otherwise hostile nations

          • I look at the Volt as being a government program, and I rarely see any of those working out well.

      • Then Obama cuts electricity production, shutting down coal powered plants, the cost of electricity skyrockets, rolling brownouts, etc. Then what do you do with your electric powered brick?

    • From Bloomberg:

      In March, GM sold 2,129 Volts to retail customers and 160 to fleet customers, Batey said yesterday during a conference call. Volt has a starting price of $39,145, not include a tax credit of $7,500, GM’s website said. The automaker is advertising monthly lease prices as low as $349 for 36 months.

      I don't hate the Volt per se. I object to a nationalized car company being picked as a "winner" by the BHO administration. The car is overpriced for a compact sedan. To offset that, I, as a tax payer, contribute to a $7500 subsidy for people who economically do not need one. Further, the market for the Volt is so weak despite high gas prices that they are tapping a hugely subvented lease payment in order to move them. $349 per month means that GM is buying down the rate and propping up the residual to arrive at that payment assuming a cap cost of $40,000.

      I would not be ringing the bell on 2129 retail sales. That sucks!! How do I know? because according to Bloomberg, there is still a 61 days supply of cars on the ground despite several weeks of zero production.

      Enjoy your car and remember you already spent a ton of money on gas when you overpaid for a compact sedan. That detail seems to escape your notice. I would argue that it will take several years to recoup $10,000 - $15,000 in price premium no matter how high gas goes.

    • And the delusion continues!
      FOX news didn't say they loved the car, some media guy from Texas that doesn't work for FOX said it.
      Doocey said it was a cool car. So what? The Yugo was a cool car when it first came out too.
      One FOX personality saying it is a cool car doesn't mean all FOX reporters and opinion people changed their minds.

      http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/03/business/gm-suspends-production-of-chevrolet-volt.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

      http://news.yahoo.com/gm-suspends-production-electric-volt-233857613.html

      http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/03/02/3779743/business-briefs-general-motors.html

  • Bye Bye Spark!!!

    Chevy suspends production of the Volt just days after Obama talks about how great it is!
    GM blames the media for low sales.
    1300 workers laid off.
    Billions of taxpayer dollars lost, AGAIN!
    Let’s keep supporting green companies…….NOT!!!!

    http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/03/business/gm-suspends-production-of-chevrolet-volt.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

    http://news.yahoo.com/gm-suspends-production-electric-volt-233857613.html

    http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/03/02/3779743/business-briefs-general-motors.html

  • And BTW, my math isn't flawed. I drive 34 miles a day. I have 9 miles left on my range. The generator comes on every 1000 miles for self maintenance if you don't use gas. I don't use gas. The generator has come on 3 times. No gas station visits in over 4 months. Rage on!

    • More flawed math.
      34+9=43 that's 7.5% more than the stated range of the vehicle from the manufacturer, which is generally an exaggeration.

    • As a first responder, don't count on us to help you in a crash, burning lithium kills quickly, drive carefully or you'll be among the many dead volt lovers....been a few already

  • Come on guys, if it wasn't for me, you would have nothing to rage on about! I'll keep popping in to get your blood going every once in a while. Later, later.

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