Chevrolet Volt sees sales outpaced by Nissan Leaf, possibly Tesla

May 2 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Nathan Bomey Detroit Free Press

 

The Chevrolet Volt was under siege in April, being outsold by the smaller and less-expensive Nissan Leaf, while the twice-as-expensive Tesla Model S may have surpassed it, too.

Sales of GM's plug-in electric vehicle, which can travel 38 miles on its battery before a small gasoline engine kicks in, fell 11 percent from April 2012. Through the first four months of 2013, Volt sales are up only 3 percent.

The Nissan Leaf, which can travel 75 miles on one charge, outsold the Volt for the second consecutive month.

Meanwhile, Silicon Valley start-up Tesla Motors' luxury electric Model S sedan could outsell both the Volt and Leaf in April.

For now, at least, consumers aren't worried about gas prices, and that means they're more comfortable buying cars with internal combustion engines. Nationally, gas prices averaged $3.52 per gallon Wednesday, down from $3.81 a year earlier, according to AAA's Daily Fuel Gauge Report.

"There's no doubt with stable gas prices out there that segment is continuing to get very competitive," said Don Johnson, vice president of U.S. sales and service for Chevrolet.

In January, Nissan slashed the Leaf's price by $6,000, to $28,800, compared with about $40,000 for the Volt. What buyers pay is reduced by a $7,500 federal tax credit.

"Nissan has been so aggressive that they're almost giving them away," said Jack Nerad, executive market analyst for Kelley Blue Book, in an interview. "That's certainly had some effect on Volt sales, although General Motors has certainly been pretty aggressive with Volt over time. I think the larger factor might be fuel prices being stable or going down."

Nissan sold 1,937 units of the Leaf last month, more than five times the year-earlier volume, while GM sold 1,306 Volts. Tesla sold an average of 1,600 Model S units per month in the first quarter and expects to sell 20,000 for the year. That car costs up to about $110,000, depending on the strength of the battery pack.

GM CEO Dan Akerson said in London last month that he believes sales of the Volt would soar if GM cut the price by $5,000. But the vehicle's already losing money, making it hard to lower the price without dramatic technological improvements.

Akerson told Bloomberg News at the Fortune Green conference Tuesday in California that GM would introduce the second generation of the Volt no later than 2016.

GM North America President Mark Reuss has suggested that the automaker could lower the price by building a special platform for the Volt, which currently uses the same platform that supports the Chevrolet Cruze.

Meanwhile, GM is preparing to introduce its first pure electric vehicle in more than a decade: the Chevrolet Spark EV, which will hit showrooms this summer in California and Oregon.

The Spark EV, a minicar, will be able to travel 82 miles on a single charge. GM said the vehicle will be "priced under $25,000 with tax incentives."

Johnson said the vehicle would find a welcome audience in markets such as California, where GM sells about 40 percent of its Volts.

"There's a higher demand for electric-only vehicles there," he said.

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