Chevrolet Volt Sales Surge In US For May

May 15th, 2015 Marked The End Of 1st Gen Chevrolet Volt Production At GM’s Hamtramck Facility

No sooner had the last, first generation Chevrolet Volt (in white) roll off GM’s assembly line in Hamtramck, Michigan, than the largest deals of the year were rolled out on purchasing one.

This renewed marketing vigor saw 2015 model year inventory fall to just over 5,000 units by month’s end, and translated into1,618 Volts being sold during May – a year high, but still off 3.9% from the 1,684 sold a year ago.

In total, through the first 5 months of the year, 4,397 Volts have been moved, which is off 35.7% from this point in 2014, when 6,838 were sold.

Quite honestly, the ‘story’ is no longer how many extended range plug-ins GM sells each the month now, as all eyes are on the next generation, 2016 Volt – which was priced from $33,995 from the base model, and from $38,345 on the premium LTZ trim level.  In Canada, the Volt was priced from $39,990 (CDN), and was announced for sale in South Korea in 2016.

2016 Chevy Volt Launch Timeline

Thankfully, with California order banks opening at the end of May, we are now closer to first deliveries, than from the 2016 Volt’s debut (full specs/story) from Detroit in January.  First Californian deliveries are expected in early September.

After California, 10 more select states can order in August, and we expect their cars to start arriving around October/November.  National orders open October 1st, with deliveries likely happening just before year’s end.

Video (below):  During May, GM also began promoting the 2016 Chevrole tVolt with a theatrical tie in to the Disney movie “Tomorrowland”:

Many New 2015 Chevrolet Volt Deals Were To Be Had In May

Despite some fairly wild (or even irresponsible) media reporting this month that GM has far too many current gen Volts instock, given the 2016 car’s staggered rollout, each one of the 5,800-odd remaining cars in inventory will be needed to bridge the gap; which could be anywhere from 5 to 7 monthsdepending on the end consumer.

If anything, there isn’t near enough 2015 Volts today, and many locations will find themselves long out of stock by the time the 2016s arrive.

Separately, the Cadillac ELR continued to sell “OK” with 116 moved, while the Chevrolet Spark EV – down to just under 400 copies in inventory to start May, managed to sell 283 of them.    We don’t see significant new inventory help arriving for the Spark EV until new production on the 2016 model arrives from South Korea – think October for that.