Chevy Volt Sales Hit 100,000 Mark
Chevrolet is marking an important milestone, General Motors’ biggest brand taking an order for the 100,000th Volt plug-in hybrid-electric vehicle.
The Chevy Volt has been one of the world’s top-selling plug-based vehicles ever since its launch in December 2010, but tempering any celebration is the fact that the Volt hasn’t come close to meeting the brand’s once-ambitious sales targets. At one point, GM officials were hoping to deliver as many as 40,000 of the vehicles annually in the U.S. alone.
Few would argue with the fact that the original Chevy Volt was a game-changer. It was the first model from a major automaker to pair a plug-based electric motor and a gasoline engine under the hood. On battery power alone, what Chevy preferred calling an extended-range electric vehicle could go for more than 35 miles a charge and then switch to gas power for longer trips.
But after an early burst of demand, sales routinely fell below target, with Volt lagging behind the competitor it was most often compared with, the pure battery-electric Nissan Leaf. Worldwide, the Japanese BEV managed to clock 200,000 sales by the end of 2015.
Plug-based vehicles – indeed, battery vehicles in general, including conventional hybrids like the Toyota Prius – have been suffering over the last several years as gasoline prices have collapsed. Last year marked the first time since Leaf and Volt were introduced that sales of plug-based models declined.
The numbers have been rebounding this year, however, in part due to new entries. And the Chevy Volt has finally regained the U.S. lead over the Nissan Leaf. Through June, Chevrolet sold 9,808 of the plug-ins, compared to 5,793 Nissan Leafs. Overall, U.S. sales of plug models came to 64,747 for the first half of 2016, up from 54,347 during the same period in 2015.
Volt has been recharged since a second-generation model was introduced last year, the monthly sales pace doubling just since last January.
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