2013 May Plugin Sales Discussion : Leaf 2138 ; Volt 1607

Final numbers for May.

Really interesting posts about May sales of late: S trim in very short supply, SL hard to find in the color they want, Leaf outselling Altima in the NW, incentive increases in CO, great lease deals in CA, looks like the snowball is rolling and sales will be up.

Nissan is still the only OEM to have an affordable family EV available for sale or lease nationwide, so whatever pent up demand is out there for this type of vehicle, there's only one place to go.

Pls don't quote the entire message. Make sure what you write is more than what you quote.

I'd be forced to delete messages that don't follow this simple etiquette - since I don't have the time to edit all those posts.

Pls do the needful and edit your posts.

update : I deleted the offending posts.

acegreatone said:

can you buy stock in this?

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I like the sentiment, but the only one to come close to this is TSLA.

The problem is the industry is not really profitable now and there is no other stock that moved based on plugin sales. Nissan, GM etc are too big to be moved by a few thousand plugins.

I suspect that CA sales will be suppressed because CVRP ran out of money.

I'm seeing very good deals on Leafs in NC as well. Leaf almost feels free, ie the gas savings are greater than the cost to lease. Meanwhile Volts are sitting in lots in large quantities and dealers are not dealing in this area. There are 9200+ Volts at dealer lots nationwide, enough to last until next year, meanwhile the 2014s are coming out soon and there are still many 2012s on lots.

Valdemar said:

I suspect that CA sales will be suppressed because CVRP ran out of money.

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I bought a few days after funds ran out. They promise there will be more funds and when I did the pre-application, they approved me and saved me a spot in line. I'm sure it'll all work out fine. :?

Edit: Right after posting this, I heard back from someone at the rebate program. They say CARB has promised more funding during this FY. The CA FY starts July 1, so if they stand by their word, more funds should be available soon.

Jbbrown9 said:

Valdemar said:

I suspect that CA sales will be suppressed because CVRP ran out of money.

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I bought a few days after funds ran out. They promise there will be more funds and when I did the pre-application, they approved me and saved me a spot in line. I'm sure it'll all work out fine. :?

Edit: Right after posting this, I heard back from someone at the rebate program. They say CARB has promised more funding during this FY. The CA FY starts July 1, so if they stand by their word, more funds should be available soon.

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Any rumors about decreasing the amount of the rebate? They will reserve your rebate but you may get less what you'd hoped for. Maybe not. Just saying it's happened before.

I'll guess ~3,100 LEAF sales and~1400 Volt sales for May.

LEAF guess is extrapolated from the record (four!!) May sales at Crown Nissan in Redding CA...

BTW, the two LEAFs they had in inventory on Thursday still show "85%" Japanese content on the windshield stickers.

Volt guess is just based on the average of the last two months, which I suspect may be ~ the new "normal" until GM cuts the price, or comes out with significant improvements in the '14 MY.

My guess is
Tesla - 2500
LEAF - 2200

hard to guess because there is still evidence of shortages. Doug went out and bought a RAV 4 EV while waiting for his LEAF (his 2nd). he wanted an SL with advanced tech package in White and dealer tried doing a locate and there was only one in the ENTIRE country, so he got the RAV instead...


as for me? I am guessing Tesla will remain the same. LEAFs will bump up a bit just past march to maybe 2300-2400 and the Volt will drop slightly.

I'm going out on a limb
Leaf 3000
Volt 1100

I'm seeing Leafs selling well in my area. Some of these major markets could sell that alone on a top selling car. Meanwhile GM has done nothing to help the price of the Volt, poor deals, little marketing. GM seems embarrassed of the Volt, won't call the ELR a voltec power train. Sudden acceleration reported issue not helpful. Thread completely erased from gm-volt, swept under the rug.

If these numbers pan out, the Leaf will pass the Volt for sales this year.

Tesla does not report monthly numbers and they're clearly constrained by how many they can make.

Valdemar said:

I suspect that CA sales will be suppressed because CVRP ran out of money.

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We bought on May 8, and our rebate for $2500 has been approved. Waiting for check to arrive.

I stopped yesterday at a local Nissan dealership to add some safety range to come home after testing the Smart electric car which btw is not that smart. Only one Leaf for sale - SV + premium + QC. Sales guy told us getting 8 Leafs today but all accounted for. There is quite a demand for Leaf's in Georgia. I bet supply is still constrained and Nissan Leaf sales will set a new record.

How many can TN make in a month, under their existing constraints?

If they're selling as fast as they can ship them, the number should be close to that.

100/day = 3000 10/hr = 240/day = 7200

I'll guess 6000 sold in May.

If it can outsell Altima, even in only some markets, it's bound to be a bigger number.

Numbers just starting now:

LEAF - 2,138

http://insideevs.com/may-2013-plug-in-electric-vehicle-sales-report-card-2/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Volt 1,607

Leaf has now passed Volt for year to date sales,

Leaf 7614

Volt 7157

Well, it looks like we might see 20,000 units sold in the US this year.

I bet the Volt sales are low because people are anticipating a price drop and/or waiting to hear about the 2nd generation model. After all, Volt buyers are far more educated about their car purchase than the average Joe that just wanders up to a car dealership not even knowing what kind of car they want.

Meanwhile, Nissan's Infiniti brand seems to be imploding:
"Nissan said its U.S. sales, including its Infiniti luxury brand, rose 24.7% to 114,457 vehicles in May. It was the Nissan brand’s best May ever in the U.S. but Infiniti sales were down by more than 25%."

jelloslug said:

Well, it looks like we might see 20,000 units sold in the US this year.

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