The Chevy Volt and the Nissan Leaf are two very different vehicles competing for a similar class of customers. So far though, the Volt is leading the Leaf in sales by a 3-to-1 margin in U.S. sales.
Nissan executives have already admitted to botching the Leaf’s launch, raising expectations too high and responding to a very slow roll out. In the month of January, Nissan managed to deliver just 87 Leaf’s. In the same month, GM delivered 321 Volts, three times as many Leafs. In December, GM delivered 326 Volts to Nissan’s 19 Leafs, making the grand total of 647 Volts versus just 106 Leafs.
However, if GM wants to sell or lease 25,000 Volts this year, and 120,000 Volts next year, they’re going to have to severely pick up the pace and sell about seven times as many Volts every month for the next 11 months. Quite the tall order, but Nissan’s got an even bigger problem. Nissan has taken 20,000 $99 pre-orders for the Leaf and delivered just over 100 of them. How many of those people will continue to wait around for their electric car, especially with so much competition heading to showrooms so soon. In fairness though, Nissan is selling the Leaf in Europe and Japan too (the Volt sells in Europe as the Opel Ampera), and global sales figures aren’t available just yet.
It’s too early to read into these sales indicators, but I’m going to anyway. Is the slow launch of the Leaf going to affect its sales going forward? Is this a sign of early Volt domination, or just an indication of GM’s ability to better launch a vehicle?
Let me know what you guys think about these numbers.
Source: CNN
Chris DeMorro is a writer and gearhead who loves all things automotive, from hybrids to HEMI’s. You can follow his slow descent into madness at Sublime Burnout.