General Motors narrowly set a new all time high in Volt sales for September with 2,851 units sold compared to 2,831 in August. This makes 16,348 units sold this year.
This was accomplished despite a shutdown of the Detroit-Hamtramck plant begun on the 17th of last month and lasting till midway into this month.
GM has offered attractive lease prices, and has said it built up supplies prior to the shutdown to have enough inventory on hand.
It has also been quoted as saying it’s been seeing month-over-month increases, without committing to whether it will see these the rest of the year.
As far as July to August to September goes, it’s so far so good for the Volt’s run toward progressive ascendancy this year.
Also setting a record was Nissan, with 984 Leafs sold in September, up from 685 in August to make 5,212 year to date.
This number is not on track to hit 20,000 units hoped for this year however, conceded Nissan Executive Vice President, Andy Palmer today.
“We’re a little disappointed,” Palmer told reporters in a roundtable discussion Tuesday. “The uptake isn’t as strong as we first hoped.”
Palmer said Nissan has made some mistakes and there are those who are saying the company is still possibly doing so in how it handles allegations of premature range loss in hot states of Arizona, Texas and California.
Nissan’s open letter by VP of R&D Carla Bailo did not even acknowledge customers alleging issues in Texas and California when it mentioned seven cars in the Phoenix region had been tested and found to be within specification.
Nonetheless, it did buy back two Leafs under Arizona lemon law, but was quoted as saying these were merely customer service gestures. It is also facing a class action suit in Californiastating it misrepresented range, and alleging lack of a liquid heating and cooling thermal management system is a “defect.”
So while admission of some mistakes on the marketing front have been made, Nissan has essentially said it is blameless in hot states as media continue to track where that is going, and whether it will grow to a full debacle, if it’s not seen as one already.
Its contrast to how GM managed the Volt side-impact crash test fire issue last year into this is clear. GM was perceived as coming clean, going beyond the call of duty, while Nissan has looked more like a corporation playing a game of denial and minimal disclosure as it rides this one out.
But where GM looks like it may have more opportunity is in shoring up the nationwide attitudes prevailing among its Volt dealers.
In a post by west coast editor of AutoRetailNet, Alysha Webb posted on plugincars.com, a survey notes inconsistencies among Chevy dealers.
“There is a love-hate thing going on between Chevrolet dealers and the Chevy Volt,” writes Webb. “Some love it because they can offer really great lease deals, and are enamored with the technology. But a smaller number really dislike it. GM needs to find a way to turn more of its dealers on to the Volt, because they will be very important to boosting sales.”
She cited dealers in California – the strongest state for sales – as disliking the Volt, and others in Wisconsin who responded saying they loved it.
Mixed opinions as to how well GM is marketing the Volt also were reported.
Webb said 38.5 percent of dealers thought marketing is “poor or very poor.” Some 46.2 percent said it was “good or very good.” And 15.4 percent offered no opinion.
Citing another recent report by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, titled “Policy Priorities for Advancing the U.S. Electric Vehicle Market,” Webb said getting dealers on the Volt’s side is critical.
Dealers can exert local political clout to work with regional legislators to help make their communities more plug-in friendly.
They can also spread the word via advertising, and the Webb said the Carnegie report observed automakers need good relations with dealers to be as effective from region to region as it could be.
Webb suggested “GM needs to take that advice to heart” given inconsistent dealer support theAutoRetailNet survey showed is presently the case at hand.
“An overwhelming 83.8 percent thought the time is right for the Volt,” Webb wrote. ” But only 56.4 percent thought Volt sales would increase in 2013; and 43.6 percent did not think sales would increase.”
And in related news, above is Bob Lutz talking about the Volt to Green Chip Stocks.com.
Source: GM-Volt.com
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