As promised by General Motors in advance, today it reported the Chevy Volt set another monthly sales record with 2,831 North American deliveries in August.
This compares to August 2011 when Volts were still rolling out and just 302 units were sold. Year-to-date, GM has reported 13,497 Volts delivered, compared to 3,172 delivered this time last year, meaning the Volt is up by 325.5 percent current year to date.
In the Prius' case, it peaked in 2007, and has dropped off since then--but I suspect that has more to do with the global economic meltdown, the tsunami last year, Toyota's "sudden accelleration" brouhaha as well as people considering other electric/hybrid options (such as the Volt, of course) than anything else.
Bottom line: Good news for GM, good news for Michigan, good news for the middle class, good news for the country and good news for Obama and the Democrats in November!
GM is also tracking their early users extremely closely, keeping in constant contact with them to find out what they like, don't like, wish lists, how they use it, where they drive and so on; they're tracking tons of real world data to improve the next model.
For instance, this year they made the following improvements:
--The Volt was released at $41,000; this has dropped to $40,000 (pre-federal tax credits, which can, potentially, bring the final price down to as low as $32,500 in any state, or even (with state-level tax credits) as low as $25,000; see below for details) --The EPA-estimated EV range has increased by three miles, to 38 miles per charge --They've added "hold drive" mode to improve battery efficiency --The Volt is now eligible for single-occupancy HOV-lane access in California and New York
--Also, one other tidbit I didn't know, which is welcome news to anyone who's concerned about the battery: The Volt battery is covered under warranty for 8 years or 100k miles, with no more than 30% reduction in capacity.
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