November Leaf Sales Edge Out Volt’s Halved Numbers

December 3, 2012

General Motors’ steady month-over-month ascent in Chevy Volt sales records came to an abrupt halt in November with the Nissan Leaf narrowly edging it out.

Chevrolet reported 1,519 sales for the Volt, essentially half of a 3,000 mark some had hoped for following its 2,961 units sold in October. In contrast, it was steady as she goes for the Leaf, which sold 1,539 units last month.

Nissan’s Director of Corporate Communications Travis Parman gave us the news this morning that the Leaf sold essentially on par with its 1,579 units sold in October, whereas GM has issued a press release and posted its model by model sales already.

News of other plug-in car sales – among companies that report their numbers – will follow, but for now, Chevrolet is down, but still up compared to November 2011 when it sold 1,139 units.

By contrast again, the Leaf’s star appears to be rising further than its 672 units sold in November 2011, and considering also that earlier this year its numbers had been flagging.

Nissan had been running low-price lease deals last month, while Chevy – which had boosted sales with them in October – is presently not running such steep promotional offers.

So, this month, it is a setback for GM, a confidence booster for Nissan, but the big picture is EVs appear to still be on their way, even if month-after-month industry watchers and EV fans enjoy watching what GM has said is not actually “a race” with Nissan.

What ever the case, when more November sales numbers for other automakers are released, we shall see how other electric plug-in cars did in what is essentially a broadening race among other contenders in this nascent electrified market segment.

 


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  • GM Employee at Warren Tech Center

    Government and companies like GE/Lockheed purchased thousands of chevy Volt between July and October, which explained the high number of Chevy Volt in the later summer and fall.
    It is unfair for government to ask us to make cars that lose lot of money. The management were coerced by the new fuel economy standard and California Zero-Emission requirement to make Volt and spark EV. We employees here at GM would be the victim when GM lose billions on green initiative!

    Angry GM Employee!

  • GM Employee at Warren Tech Center

    Government and Obama administration put their boot on our neck, do you know that no GM engineers want to build plug-in or electric vehicles, because we can’t sell them at a price where we can break even. The component cost of the Spark EV will be around $25K, plus labor, marketing, R&D, we have to sell it at >$40K just to break even.
    We all love America and want to get rid of oil independence, everyone can pitch in and drive less and buy small cars, but American people are not willing to do so, at the same time, not willing to pay fair price for plug-in and EV, Chevy Volt cost a lot of than $40K and will always be expensive to make.

    There is no technology down the road that is fuel efficient (>50 mpg), big enough for fat America and still reasonably priced. SORRY!!!

    All these green initiatives are utterly disgraceful and will detroy our auto business!

    Talk to a trust-worthy GM employee and hear the real story! No one think Chevy Volt can ever make profit!

  • Shines

    Sorry GM employee, I don’t see what you are really angry about. The government kept GM from bankruptcy a few years back – saving your job I would guess. The fact that GE and Lockheed bought large numbers of Volts says they believe in the technology to some degree. Consumer Reports indicates the Volt has the highest owner loyalty of any car sold in America. Hybrids, EVs and similar vehicles are being made by Ford, Toyota, Nissan, Volvo, Hyundai, Kia, BMW, Porche, Audi, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Tesla, Fiskar and several Chinese companies. I would think GM wants to be in the game along with every other vehicle manufacturer in the world.

  • Bill Cosworth

    The GM employee here is from china. Becuase they cant speak english.

  • GM Employee at Warren Tech Center

    I did the work of battery cooling for Chevy Volt, so my work was critical for the longevity of Chevy Volt (compare to Nissan leaf), and we know our capability is top notch, but this vehicle is very expensive and we can’t make money!!! No one want to sell something at 60% of the cost!!!!

    If Republicans were in charge, they would dump the union control over us, and we would be in better shape in the long run. No POTUS will allow GM to disappear, don’t believe the troll by Democrats that republicans want to destroy US auto industry, because auto industry has the largest talent pool when it comes to engineering!!! Bigger than Lockheed/Boeing!!! Also it is the biggest manufacturing sector in the US, even Bush Jr. understand that!!!!

    God bless all US auto worker, minus the union rules/contracts!

    I am going to leave GM in the near future and will work for its competitor!