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Sep 2018 EV sales numbers

38K views 202 replies 30 participants last post by  SparkE  
#1 ·
https://insideevs.com/monthly-plug-in-sales-scorecard/

September 2018 EV SALES will be reported on Tuesday, October 2, 2018, beginning with GM’s quarterly report, Toyota Prius Prime, and Nissan LEAF sales at 6:30-7:30 AM PT (9:30-10:30 AM ET) and continuing with Ford and other automakers into the remainder of the week.
 
#6 ·
Do these numbers include domestic and foreign deliveries? The Bolt EV numbers look low, but we know they delivered a bunch of Bolts to South Korea over the summer, and the Canadian market is quite strong.
 
#7 · (Edited)
As a regular reader of the Southeast Missourian. :eek: I noticed this a.m. they're quoting some numbers from AP on Tesla's Q3-2018 volumes.

https://hosted.ap.org/semissourian/...80635b0494620b7232a92bc1a7084/musk-workers-perform-profit-prove-naysayers-wrong

EDIT: If the Q3 production number for M3 is correct - - 53,239 - - they've averaged maybe 29 units per hour out of Fremont over the quarter. About half as many as a competitive assembly plant.

Ya know. I could really sympathize and get on board with the Tesla struggle, if :
1.) owners would eat some humble pie and tone their discussions accordingly, and
2.) teslatifosi investors, owners, trolls, whoever: quit trying to tell me the TSLA stock value is undoubtedly "going to the moon" (or mars..)
 
#8 ·
As a regular reader of the Southeast Missourian. :eek: I noticed this a.m. they're quoting some numbers from AP on Tesla's Q3-2018 volumes.

https://hosted.ap.org/semissourian/...80635b0494620b7232a92bc1a7084/musk-workers-perform-profit-prove-naysayers-wrong

EDIT: If the Q3 production number for M3 is correct - - 53,239 - - they've averaged maybe 29 units per hour out of Fremont over the quarter. About half as many as a competitive assembly plant.

Ya know. I could really sympathize and get on board with the Tesla struggle, if :
1.) owners would eat some humble pie and tone their discussions accordingly, and
2.) teslatifosi investors, owners, trolls, whoever: quit trying to tell me the TSLA stock value is undoubtedly "going to the moon" (or mars..)
They also make the S and X there too for what it's worth. I'd be curious what the annual revenue of the NUMMI plant was before vs now. Have to think that there's a price/complexity relationship that affects production as well as newbie experience, tooling, tweaking, assembly at capacity, etc. As long as they are increasing production rather than flat line, then we can assume they haven't reached final output capacity, correct?
 
#31 ·
The link in the original message by the thread starter (SparkE) and the link in the message from Jim Fallston Md. add up: 3,949 Bolt EVs were sold in the USA ONLY in Q3. I wonder how many were sold in the rest of the world (including South Korea and Canada)? We know several thousand went to South Korea, but I don't know how many. We know there is a one year order backlog in Canada, but how many were sold there in the past three months?
 
#32 ·
numbers for the month of Sep :

model3 .... 22,250
modelS .... 3750
modelX .... 3975
Bolt .......... 1549
LEAF ......... 1563



And Bolt monthly sales numbers Jan -> Sep :

1177 1424 1774 1275 1125 1083 1175 1225 1549
 
#33 ·
A little information was found on this link:

https://insideevs.com/bolt-volt-global-plug-ins/

The following Bolt EV sales were reported:

South Korea: 1014 in May, 1621 in June, 872 in July, 631 in August, 4625 through August for all of 2018
Canada: 1651 through August for all of 2018
Europe (Ampera-e): 1809 through August for all of 2018

At the pace of sales through August, 44% of all sales were to international customers. Looking at domestic sales alone is very deceptive.

So that's at least 19,892 Bolt EVs sold in 2018, not including the September sales for South Korea, Canada or Europe.
 
#37 ·
Honestly IMO GM has pulled the NA/USA-Bolt volume back to idle & I don't care status. One could see it as soon as GM announced only +20% Bolt capacity at Orion after knocking out the 50% Sonic's.

One can see that the GM crowd is now defaulting back to Volt, as Volt is now outselling Bolt.

It sounded good back in Q1 when Mary announced the "all electric future" and the prospect of more jobs in Michigan. It seems that all that fizzled out... no second shift at Orion, only +5 to +7 units per hour more Bolts. Something happened between Q1 and Q2 in GM's outlook. Could have been the attitude of the US administration. Who knows.
 
#40 ·
Bolt production is disappointing, even when foreign sales are included.

My best guess is that GM simply doesn’t want to build very many. A recent announcement of a 20% production increase may sound positive, but that would only add a few thousand Bolts per year.

For GM, the future may be EVs, but the present is very much trucks and SUVs.
 
#41 ·
My best guess is that GM simply doesn’t want to build very many. A recent announcement of a 20% production increase may sound positive, but that would only add a few thousand Bolts per year.
Sugar-coated POV:
"The decline is more a function of us diverting production to Canada and South Korea, coupled with low stocks in the U.S.," GM spokesman Jim Cain told CNBC in an email. "We're still proceeding with the Q4 production increase we announced in the last sales release." Cain added that investors should expect lower U.S. sales for 2018 but higher global sales.

GM's total sales are down 11 percent over the same quarter last year and 1.2 percent this year. Chevrolet saw a year-over-year decline of 11.4 percent, GMC saw a decline of 11.3 percent, Cadillac lost 10.7 percent and Buick lost 7.3 percent.
[BTW]
The Bolt is not to be confused with the Chevrolet Volt, a hybrid, which actually saw a year-over-year increase of nearly 23 percent in sales.
~ https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/02/sales-of-chevys-electric-car-the-bolt-tank-41-percent.html

From a not-so-sugar-coated POV:

The Chevy Bolt is turning out to be a sales disaster for Chevy and General Motors. Despite being a media favorite and Car of The Year award winner, the Bolt's sales are in freefall over the past three months. In the third quarter sales went off a cliff and are 41.1% lower than the same period last year.

If other affordable electrified cars were seeing the same results it would be easy to call the Bolt's sales a market reaction. They are not. The Prius Prime was up 21% with sales over 2,000 in September. The Chevy Volt was up 23% in the past quarter. The Honda Clarity and Nissan Leaf are steadily climbing in sales. Every major player in the affordable EV market is doing well by comparison to last year. Except for the Bolt.

"Why," is the question?

One factor that cannot be overlooked is the emergence of the Tesla Model 3 as a market-mover.
Seemingly, they are not even close to being competitors. But they may well be. Almost nobody in America buys a green car of any type. Battery-electrics sell at an even smaller rate. The interested parties may be less price-sensitive than in other car-buying segments. It is hard to ignore the correlation between Chevy's dramatic drop in sales and the Tesla Model 3's dramatic rise.
~ https://www.torquenews.com/1083/chevrolets-bolt-ev-sales-plunge-whopping-41-q3-heres-why
 
#49 ·
The 83k number is including the S and X along with the 3. There was a backlog of deliveries that were officially "in transit" 6/30/18 that became "sales" after the credit countdown started. They probably had to describe it like that or the IRS would have been in line before the SEC to "straighten things out". This possibly could explain more deliveries than production for Q3.
 
#59 ·
Good point that there is a difference between making the standard range Model 3 available, vs making a standard range base model available. Basically, demand has to have been satisfied for all higher trim versions before the lowest one is produced. If that's the case, it might not be until Q1 of 2020 before a $35k version is available for purchase. I'd expect most people to want at least some option, and not a totally base model Tesla.
 
#70 ·
What is the origin of tifosi? It doesn't seem easy to pronounce or read teslatifosi.
Many people think than human language was originally developed and continues to evolve through social interaction. It’s important therefore that language reflect current trends in society involving interactions both good and bad. With regard to trends in battery electric vehicles, existing and proposed terms of language might include:

tifosi
translated from Italian means “fan”
more colloquially in Italian it is used to describe a group of people who act crazily in pursuit of a sport or a cause

teslatifosi
diehard fans of Tesla
teslatifosi include those who display a detachment from reality when any subject surrounding Tesla comes up
teslatifosi may include both teslatifosa- a female, tifose- a group of females and teslatifoso- a male or teslatifosi-a group of males

teslatifosi - itis
a person’s feeling of discomfort or sickness following exposure to one-way rants of teslatifosi, tifose, a teslatifosa, or a teslatifoso, which unduly elevate without substantiation a Tesla vehicle, a Tesla leader, or Tesla Inc as a public company

teslarati
a website teslarati.com self-described as “Tesla news, rumours, and reviews on all things Tesla”
alternate use, for example as used by a person who is cynical after being afflicted by teslatifosi – itis
teslarati: a meal ration comprised of chicken giblets and brown rice made available to owners of Tesla vehicles who have exhausted their assets in attempting to maintain their car payments
 
#73 ·
We know there is a one year order backlog in Canada, but how many were sold there in the past three months?

The following Bolt EV sales were reported:

South Korea: 1014 in May, 1621 in June, 872 in July, 631 in August, 4625 through August for all of 2018
Canada: 1651 through August for all of 2018

I don't think think Canada numbers can be extrapolated going forward. Much of the Bolt volumn goes to Ontario, (they had a 14K incentive), July/August was a one time blip as people rushed to get a deal done & delivery by Sept 10. I got the last Bolt available in Ontario before the generous rebate was nixed.
I spoke with a lady from Gov't Dept of Finance, (overseers of the rebate program) yesterday, she said they were deluged with applications in July/Aug, & have not started to process Aug yet. NOTE: these applications/rebates cover all BEV & PHEV.
I wanted to order a 2019 model, & get exactly what I wanted, but with the election/new Gov't, I was sure the rebate would die, so I took the last one any dealer had. Every dealer I called was talking Jan/Feb for delivery of the 2019's. Dealers were given very limited allotments, ( mine was the only unit this dealer was allowed), hence the one year backlog.
That backlog is no more. After Sept, you can go online & find quite a few Bolts. People who had put down deposits, (they are refundable), walked when the generous rebate was yanked. The 14K didn't depend on your tax bill or income, everyone got it, even lease as long as the term was 36 or more months.
I see the sales of the Bolt from Aug on, in Ontario, being much worse than last year.

When you convert the currency, I dug $52,000 out of my checking account & paid cash for one. After rebate, it's still $38,000. It's a fun car, & across the fleet I've dropped my gas bill by $300/month. I figure payback is 5 years. If I had to pony up the full 52K, I would have bought 2 brand new Civics or Corollas for the fleet, & that's what many of the backlog orders are doing. Without the rebate, a business case cannot be made, & an LX or LE Civic/Corolla is a better equipped, more comfortable car.
A few will buy in because they have surplus $$, or firmly believe in the environmental aspect, but they are a minority.
It will be interesting to see Q4 numbers for Ontario. I would like to believe they are going up exponentially, but realistically I don't see them going mainstream here in the near term.
 
#74 ·
Without the rebate, a business case cannot be made, & an LX or LE Civic/Corolla is a better equipped, more comfortable car.
A few will buy in because they have surplus $$, or firmly believe in the environmental aspect, but they are a minority.
It will be interesting to see Q4 numbers for Ontario. I would like to believe they are going up exponentially, but realistically I don't see them going mainstream here in the near term.
It sounds like Ontario officials got exactly what they were after. :(

First this, now worse NAFTA. What's going on up in Canada?
 
#76 ·
First this, now worse NAFTA. What's going on up in Canada?
I think both Countries suffer from a plethora of uninformed, under educated voters, resulting in candidates with low leadership qualities being elected.
I despair of the oft repeated line, “ the voters are never wrong”. The most informed up to date voters ballot is cancelled by one who lives under a rock. Enough cave dwellers overturn the best policy.
It’s unbeliveabe, some of the rhetoric up here, directed at the USA, mostly because of your current President.
These people do not seem to understand politicians come & go, Countries remain. Or that the US is de facto our most important trading partner. Our population is too small for the economy to rely on consumerism, we export stuff, lots of it, to the US.
Also I relish the fact that America is our neighbor, & not say Iran, or Syria.
 
#78 · (Edited)
Yet, if you go to their Website, you cannot find that Bolt, ****, you cannot even find Bolt EV in any of the menus! The first car listed under the Chevrolet Brand is Camaro, then descending order.

How the heck do they think they will sell something if no one can find it?
I realize that Chevrolet crreates the website for the dealers, but they don't appear to be doing anything to promote EVs.
UPDATE: I just went to the Chevrolet.ca website, EPIC FAIL! Jesus, you can't even find a 2019 anything, except Corvette. Under SHOPPING TOOLS, Locate A Chevrolet Vehicle, you are presnted with a page that allows you to check 2018, or 2019 model year. If you select 2019, then start scrolling down, all you get are 2018. What a joke, if I were a dealer I'd be yelling at HQ to get with the program, 2019's have been out for a few months now. Nissan & Hyundai sites, you can actually select a prominent tab-Hybrid/Electric Electric, & see 2019 models.
Doesn't matter where you go on Chevy, even Build & Price, it comes up with the 2018 screen.
This is why the imports gained a beach head, then ate their lunch.
 
#79 ·
Buying a vehicle should be like buying anything else. The price is as stated. I don't haggle the price of groceries at the store; I simply shop at the place with the best prices and pay what is advertised. I don't see why people would buy a vehicle already on the lot when there is a very low chance that it's exactly what they want. A dealership should be where a few example models exist to test drive, as it is important to experience something first. Then when a decision is made about what model, an order is placed with the options wanted. People could still buy the test vehicles, but their impulsiveness would cost them extra.

I waited about 2 months for my company car to be delivered. I didn't order through a manufacturers website, but rather a 3rd party ordering tool.

Perhaps that's the thing I like the most about Tesla; that they are making an effort to disrupt the auto industry cartel system.
 
#80 ·
Perhaps that's the thing I like the most about Tesla; that they are making an effort to disrupt the auto industry cartel system.
It's what any startup automaker might do; a clean sheet approach provided the product is always strong enough to support ownership of retail outlets vertically.

The "dealership" model is 100? years old and was useful historically to dissipate risk in an otherwise cyclical industry. And let's not forget the USA made the auto dealership a "king", almost untouchable with the strongest franchise laws anywhere in the world protecting car dealerships.

Some of the larger automakers probably want to ditch it but find it's too difficult to get out of, and there's bigger fish to fry.
 
#87 ·
Everyone is on about the self driving crap, LET ME DRIVE!!! what you can never teach a computer is intuition, I can tell by looking at traffic flow, the types of cars on the road, and just feel the energy of the road, when stupid crap is going to happen long before it takes place, a computer can only react, it cannot fully anticipate.

There are 2 reasons why it's a big deal today, bragging about it, and F'n off about your cell phone while on the road.
 
#88 ·
My wife *used to* make fun of me for watching so many of the car-crash videos on You-Tube...until I avoided collisions twice so far (with her as passenger) because I saw the situations developing and avoided them handily. Both times, I exclaimed "Here we go!" as things were developing. Afterwards, she looked at me like I was psychic or something, until I mentioned the videos that she poo-pooed. Watching these videos is a guilty pleasure, but it's also made me a *much* better driver. Current "AI" is a long way from this ability.


Don't get me started on the motorcycle-based ones...:eek:
 
#95 ·
It’s important to note that it will still be the individual states that control access to public roadways for AVs. While the federal government sets safety standards for automobile manufacturers, states may have widely different regulations for the operation of these vehicles.

Some states have been very eager to accommodate the testing of AVs on public roadways, some have not, and some don’t have a lot of regulation one way or another. A patchwork of state regulations may be an additional hurdle for AV development, now that major players in the AV industry have plans to roll out tens of thousands of AVs in the next year or two.

The recent pedestrian death in an Uber AV crash in Arizona underscores the danger of relying on inadequately tested control systems, but there’s a need for real world field testing on public roadways. Balancing AV development with public safety won’t be easy, or without further deadly incidents. It will be interesting to see the public’s reactions to citizens being injured and killed by errant robots, even if statistically those robots are better drivers than we are.
 
#107 · (Edited)
I did some research on this recently since I just ordered a RWD Model 3 and will be trading in my Bolt. According to the Model 3 order tracking spreadsheet, backlog orders for RWD is pretty much depleted and they are almost exclusively building AWD, and has about 1 more months of solid backlog for AWD. So the pent up demand for long range/premium interior is pretty much gone and Telsa will have to open up cheaper configurations or start international delivery very soon to sustain the current delivery numbers.

As for me I really wanted to love my Bolt, did quite a few lighting mods to it (which I now have to undo). It drives great and is super practical, but in the end I just couldn't live with the **** driver seat... It feels like the car wants to kick me out every time I get in.
 
#108 ·
As for me I really wanted to love my Bolt, did quite a few lighting mods to it (which I now have to undo). It drives great and is super practical, but in the end I just couldn't live with the **** driver seat... It feels like the car wants to kick me out every time I get in.
Did you ever have the seat checked out? Apparently, some were installed using the wrong bolt, so it impinges on the driver's side thigh.