No deal for Chevrolet Volt, Chevy Bolt EV buyers in final days of tax credit

2018 Chevrolet Bolt EV

Consumers have less than three days to buy a plug-in Chevy Volt or Bolt EV from GM and still qualify for the full $7,500 federal tax. And yet Chevrolet isn't making any final push to clear out inventories of either car.

Nor does GM have any plans to cut prices after the tax cut expires on Monday, as Tesla did with its cars after the tax credit began to wind down.

GM is the second automaker to face the "tax credit cliff," as Tesla CEO Elon Musk has called it, after delivering 200,000 plug-in cars. Tesla passed that limit last July, which caused the tax credit to drop from the full $7,500 to $3,750 on its cars starting January 1. GM, which began selling Chevy Volts two years before Tesla introduced the Model S, passed the limit in November, meaning its buyers are only eligible for $3,750 starting Monday. After that, the credit on Chevrolet plug-ins will drop to $1,875 in September. (Tesla faces that drop in June.) 

GM spokesman Jim Cain confirmed to Reuters that the company will not cut sticker prices on the Bolt EV in reaction to the tax-credit drop. "It is easier to react to the market by working with dealers and your marketing team than it is to change sticker prices," he said.

With fixed manufacturer prices and no dealers, Tesla didn't have that option.

Still, so far Chevrolet doesn't even seem to be offering any further discounts on either car to provide buyers an incentive to purchase while they can still get the larger tax credit.

When we checked with our partners at CarsDirect about special deals, we found that Chevrolet is offering big discounts for Bolt EV buyers, but no bigger than they have been in recent months. The deals also aren't available to lessees. Buyers can get up to 14 percent off the sticker price of a Bolt EV. The plug-in hybrid Volt is one of the few GM models that is not eligible for that deal.

Bargains are much skimpier on the scant inventory remaining on the discontinued Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid. There, the best deal is a lease for $389 a month with $4,029 due at signing, for an effective monthly cost of $402 per month. That compares with a $209 a month lease on the Volt's closest rival, the Honda Clarity Plug-in Hybrid, with $2,299 down and an effective cost of $273 a month. Honda plug-ins will be eligible for the full tax credit for several years.

One dealer in Northridge, California, is offering $8,515 off the price of a Bolt EV before buyers even walk in the door. The same dealer is offering a $3,608 discount on a Volt in stock.

GM Says No To Plug-In Hybrids, Yes To Pure Electric

It’s all-electric for the win, says GM.

Mark Reuss, General Motors President, shown below with the Chevrolet Volt in 2012, says that there is no backing for plug-in hybrids.

The company intends to focus all its resources on the all-electric part of the plug-in segment, which excludes the possibility of some other models – SUV or pickup – with Voltec drivetrain, for which many hoped after the Volt’s demise.

Mark Reuss said at the company’s investor conference:

“Hybrids are just countermeasures to an ICE.”

“You can’t spend money to force the customer to carry around extra stuff they may not need.”

“Or, you can spend your money on getting the real answer, which is providing the customer a zero emissions, sustainable, affordable solution.”

Interestingly, in China, Buick is going to introduce the plug-in hybrid Velite 6. Mixed signals, perhaps? Seems true, especially if you consider the Cadillac electric SUV debut from last night.

Source: Green Car Reports

Cadillac Shows Off First Fully Electric Crossover On New EV Platform

More details will be announced as the automaker moves closer to launch.

Last week we learned that Cadillac was going to become the lead brand for launching the next generation of electric vehicles at General Motors. We learned that the Detroit automaker would be soon announcing a lineup to go head to head with Tesla.

The first announcement for this has come much more quickly than we anticipated. Late Sunday afternoon, Cadillac dropped the first images of what is going to be their first fully electric vehicle.

DETROIT — Cadillac furthered its recent product blitz today with the reveal of the brand’s first EV. This will be the first model derived from GM’s future EV platform. GM announced on Friday that Cadillac will be at the vanguard of the company’s move toward an all-electric future.

“Cadillac’s EV will hit the heart of the crossover market and meet the needs of customers around the world,” said Steve Carlisle, president of Cadillac. “It will represent the height of luxury and innovation while positioning Cadillac as the pinnacle of mobility.”

The Cadillac EV’s name and additional details will be revealed closer to launch. Today’s announcement is part of Cadillac’s aggressive product acceleration announced this week — in addition to revealing the all-new XT6 crossover, the company also hinted at both a future Escalade and an upcoming performance sedan. Overall, Cadillac will introduce new models at the rate of roughly one every six months through 2021.

GM’s future EV platform, which Cadillac will be the first to use, will be flexible, allowing the company to respond quickly to customer preferences with a relatively short design and development lead time. The Cadillac portfolio will eventually benefit from a variety of body styles that can be spun off this architecture.

The most advanced components within this platform are the drive units and battery cells, both of which are being designed for maximum usability throughout GM vehicle lineups in different countries. The EVs can be configured in front-, rear- or all-wheel drive, and the output of their battery systems will be adjustable based on vehicle and customer needs.

Five Facts About The 2019 Chevy Volt That You Should Know

New Volt updates improve the car in every way

Chevrolet more or less birthed the plug-in hybrid category when it debuted the Chevy Volt way back in December of 2010.  Since then, the Volt has continued to lead the way for plug-in hybrids and faced very little serious competition. Neither from a technological sense, or from a sales perspective.

But over the past 2 years, that status quo has changed. The Volt has seen Toyota pass by it in U.S. plug-in sales with their low price, short range Prius Prime. The Honda Clarity PHEV has been steadily creeping up as well. The Honda has an all electric range nearly matching the Volt with an EPA estimated 47 miles. And sales estimates put very little daylight between the two models’ sales.

In order to stay competitive, the 2019 Volt needed to offer some major changes for the car’s mid-cycle update. Faster charging speeds, stronger regenerative braking, vastly improved backup camera, new packages and optional power driver seat are just a few of the improvements. By all accounts, Chevy has succeeding in making the Volt a more compelling package.

Tens of thousands of Americans will be picking up a new plug-in hybrid for the 2018 EV sales rush. So Roadshow has compiled a list of 5 important facts that you should know about the Volt before deciding what PHEV is right for you.

The video gives you a good overview of basic vehicle information as well as several features receiving major updates. Although Roadshow does leave off one very important update heading into winter. According to Chevrolet:

the 2019 Volt allows activation of the automatic engine-assisted heating system to be deferred until much lower temperatures — minus 13 degrees F / minus 25 degrees C — for more all-electric operation.

For more detail on these updates, be sure to check our overview from earlier this year.

Video Description via Roadshow on YouTube:

Chevy gives the Volt plug-in hybrid faster charging capabilities and more safety features. But there’s more — Here are 5 things you need to know about the 2019 Chevrolet Volt.

Chevy Bolt EV Survey Hints At Cold Weather Package With Heat Pump

17 HBYWADE MALONE57

Greater EPA range is suggested in the survey as well

Earlier this week, new Chevy Bolt EV owner and chevybolt.org user jvandonsel posted about a survey he received from Chevrolet. The options presented in the survey hinted that a cold weather package might be in the works:

I just took an interesting survey from Chevy asking about cold-weather performance of the Bolt and how much I’d be willing to pay for various cold weather packages.

What’s interesting is that this is a peek into some of the technologies that GM is working on or considering working on. Some of the interesting ones from the survey are:

• Radiant floor heating
• Wiper parking heater
• Heat pump
• Cold weather battery pack
• Heated front windshield

Having only owned my Bolt for a month, I didn’t have much wisdom to impart, but it will be interesting to see how it makes it through its first New England winter.

 But jvandonsel was not the only Bolt owner to receive the survey. Several other members on the site did as well. Forum user cleavet was kind enough to provide screenshots of the survey options:

The Bolt has decent winter range but it can absolutely be improved. A heat pump and heated windshield would surely increase range in cold weather. At moderate winter temperatures many other electric models outperform it in efficiency.

Interestingly, a 300 mile EPA range is listed as well as a 200 mile EPA range. This might materialize as multiple Chevy Bolt battery pack options. Or it could represent a currently unreleased model.

These types of surveys do not guarantee a feature makes it to production. But they can hint towards future product changes.

For instance, in late 2016 and early 2017 several new Bolt owners received a survey on preferred options for a hypothetical user defined maximum charge level.  This feature ended up in the 2019 model year of the Chevy Bolt.

Source: chevybolt.org

Chevy Bolt EV Owners On Rural Texas Ranch: This Car Has Got Guts

“I want to be a cowboy baby! Where my Chevy Bolt’s charged by the sunshine shinin’.”

Harry and Elizabeth Akers are proud new owners of the Chevy Bolt EV. The couple lives in rural Merkel, Texas about 20 miles from Abilene and 200 miles west of Dallas. They own 200 acres of land and 40 cattle on their property.

And now the Bolt is their primary mode of transportation for errands and hauling cargo. So far, Elizabeth Akers loves the range of the Bolt and its 56.6 cu ft of cargo space:

It’s about a 55-mile round trip to pick up feed for the cattle. We got the Bolt EV mainly for that reason—to go into town, run errands, and pick up what we need. We can go into town three times on a single charge, and it’s got more than enough room.

Hauling feed for the cattle or other items they need from town is a daily trip. So the cost of driving to and from town on gas was becoming a burden. Now with their new electric, their fuel comes from geothermal power and a solar panel installation. Hopefully they took advantage of the $2,500 Texas Plug-In rebate as well. The switch to a greener lifestyle is going to pay for itself in no time. According to Harry Akers:

The numbers just made sense when I looked at what we’d save with the Bolt EV. Bottom line is that we invest in things that reinvest in us, and we can put the money we’re saving back into things we want to do—like going on vacation and taking cruises.

The long range of the Bolt means a trip to Dallas/Fort Worth, Austin/San Antonio and Midland/Odessa are all more than do-able thanks to their centralized location. As charging infrastructure fills in, travel will become even easier. In fact, the Akers purchased their Bolt from Classic Chevrolet in Grapevine, TX near Dallas. The dealership is well known for Electric Avenue, a section dedicated solely to sale of hybrid and plug-in vehicles.

But it’s not just the energy savings, range and cargo capacity the couple appreciates. The electric Chevy is also fun to drive. Of the vehicle’s performance, Harry says “This car’s got all kind of guts to it.”

Thanks to electrics like the Tesla Model 3 and Chevy Bolt, people all over are starting to see the value of electric cars.

Source: New Roads Magazine

Plug-In Electric Cars Sales In U.S. Surpass 1 Million

1,000,000 plug-in electric cars sold in U.S.

Thanks to nearly 45,000 plug-in cars sold in September, cumulative sales of all plug-in models reached one million units. For mainstream consumers, electrification began in December 2010, when the first Nissan LEAFs and Chevrolet Volts were delivered – we tracked those numbers with passion every month!

Technically, our tally of mainstream models indicates almost 999,500 (since December 2010 through the end of September 2018), but first – it’s partially estimated (the error is within few thousands or 0.5% we believe) and secondly – there is are less than a few thousand road-legal plug-ins outside of our mainstream tracking (like the Tesla Roadster) that have been sold (since 2008).

In other words, we are sure that in the last days of September or first few days of October, the U.S. crossed 1 million plug-in electric cars! The government’s goal was to achieve 1 million by the end of 2015. Well, we did it by 2018.

This year sales already exceed 230,000 and should be close to 400,000 for the full year of 2018.

U.S. Plug-In Car Sales – September 2018

The most popular brands that together represents 70% of sales were:

• Tesla – 273,773 (Model S + Model X + Model 3, without Roadster)
• General Motors – 193,430 (Chevrolet Volt, Bolt EV, Spark EV plus Cadillac ELR & CT6 PHV)
• Nissan – 125,513 (LEAF)
• Ford - 110,130 (Fusion Energi, C-Max Energi, Focus Electric)

Chevy Volt Quarterly And Monthly Sales Way Up, Chevy Bolt Rising

2019 Chevy Volt arriving at dealerships now with major improvements

Unfortunately, due to General Motors’ recent decision to withhold monthly sales reports in favor of a Tesla-like quarterly reporting system, the following Chevy Bolt EV and Chevy Volt numbers are estimates.

This information is important to our readers and a testament to what we’ve been doing for some time. So, we have attempted to provide you with our best estimates. Our numbers are primarily based upon daily inventory tracking, as well as accounts from buyers, dealers and other sources.

Bolt inventories in the U.S. were weak throughout the entire 2018 model year. GM has been prioritizing exports of the popular electric hatchback, particularly to South Korea. So much so that 2018 international GM plug-in sales have eclipsed domestic for the first time ever.

As a result, between March and July, the Chevy Volt has significantly edged out the Bolt EV in sales. For instance, in July we estimated 1,475 Chevy Volts and 1,175 Bolt EVs made their way to buyers. In August, we saw a sales increase of both models with an estimated 1,225 Bolt EV’s and 1,825 Volt’s delivered.

For Q3, Chevrolet reports quarterly deliveries of  3,949 for the Chevy Bolt EV and 5,429 for the Chevy Volt.

So for the month of September, we estimate 1,549 Chevy Bolt EVs and 2,129 Chevy Volts were delivered to owners. 

Chevy Bolt inventories are strong heading into Q4

For the past two quarters, Chevy Bolt EV inventories have hovered between 2,000 and 2,750 units according to Cars.com. By late July, we began to see an uptick to about 2,900. In the last 2 weeks over of August, inventories were looking much stronger, averaging around 3,200 units. This is important since we had not seen Bolt inventories reach this level since February, 2018. The last time the Bolt cracked 3k was 3,003 units was on March 7th.

Well in September, this rush of product continued. Within 3 weeks, Bolt inventories at or in transit to dealers is now well above 4,000 units. These numbers still are not as high as Q4 2017, but the vehicle is looking much better stocked for the holiday sales rush. Smart consumers will take their new vehicles home before the end of the year. GM is expected to hit 200k U.S. Plug-In sales in Q4 2018. Not coincidentally, Bolt EV production will be increased 20% in Q4. According to GM:

U.S. and global demand for the Chevrolet Bolt EV has been very strong in 2018, with global sales estimated to be up more than 35 percent year over year in the second quarter and up more than 40 percent in the first half. In response, GM is increasing fourth quarter production by more than 20 percent compared to the average of the first three quarters.

We have seen some welcome changes to the 2018/2019 Bolt in the form of revised front seats and a user defined target charge level. The Volt will also receive several major improvements for its mid-cycle refresh. Optional 7.2 kW charging and power driver seats just to name a few. These updates should help the cars stay competitive in the second half of the year.

CHEVY VOLT

15 photos

Chevy Volt First Plug-In To Reach Cars.com Most American-Made List

Bolt EV, LEAF, Tesla Model 3 and others don’t make list due to global sourcing of batteries and other vehicle parts.

Determining just how “American-Made” a car is isn’t a simple task. In fact, not all organizations that attempt to make such a determination agree. Last month, Cars.com released their 2018 American Made Index (AMI) list.  Their evaluation considers five factors: assembly location, domestic-parts content, engine sourcing, transmission sourcing, and factory jobs provided by the automaker’s U.S. plants.

While Cars.com has published the AMI for over a decade, in 2017 they updated their methodology. Prior to 2017, the AMI was based more heavily on the American Automobile Labeling Act (AALA) that does not distinguish between U.S. and Canadian parts. Their new analysis is focused purely on U.S. sourced components. In 2018, the Chevy Volt has made the list for the first time. In fact, the Volt is the first plug-in vehicle to make the list with 66% U.S.-sourced materials and labor.

Regarding the Chevy Volt and why most plug-ins do not make the list, Cars.com states:

The Chicago-built Ford Taurus ranks No. 4, followed by the AMI’s highest-ranked newcomer, the No. 5 Chevrolet Volt. Plug-in cars, be they fully electric or a plug-in hybrid like the Volt, often lack high domestic content amid global sourcing for batteries — one of the most cost-intensive aspects of any car with a significant electric driving range. But the Volt’s battery is assembled near Detroit, with cells from a plant in western Michigan.

GM recently announced a series of upgrades at their Brownstown battery assembly plant near Detroit. In Cars.com’s survey of 1,000 drivers, 83% claimed assembly location was an important factor in determining a cars economic impact. However, 7 in 10 respondents said other factors impacted their purchase decision more. They also found only ~53% of passenger-vehicle sales were assembled in the United States.

CHEVY VOLT

15 photos

Source: Cars.com