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Electric-Car Wars: Chevy Volt Still Outselling Nissan Leaf

 
1,603 views Mar 3, 2011
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First 2011 Chevrolet Volt delivered to retail buyer Jeffrey Kaffee, in Denville, NJ, December 2010

First 2011 Chevrolet Volt delivered to retail buyer Jeffrey Kaffee, in Denville, NJ, December 2010

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Battle of the Titans it ain't.

But for the third month in a row, Chevrolet sold more Volt range-extended electric cars than Nissan delivered Leaf plug-ins.

During February, Nissan delivered 67 Leaf battery electric hatchbacks, bringing its two-month total to 154.


Adding in the 19 delivered in December since the first one went to Olivier Chaloub, there are now 174 Nissan Leafs quietly humming around the States.

Chevrolet delivered 281 Volts in February, for a 2011 total of 602. It also delivered 326 in December, so right now, Volts outnumber Leafs on the streets of the U.S. by more than five to one.

Nissan LEAFs arrive in the U.K.

Nissan LEAFs arrive in the U.K.

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The February results roughly continue the ratio from January, when the Volt outsold the Leaf 321 to 87.

Nissan has admitted that its Leaf deliveries have fallen behind schedule, but attributes the delays to ensuring the quality of the earliest Leaf models remained as high as the company expected.

Higher volumes of the Leaf should start to arrive this spring, although February didn't produce the flood of deliveries that some owners had expected.

The first 2011 Nissan Leaf was delivered in San Francisco on December 12, and the first 2011 Chevrolet Volt followed just three days later in New Jersey.

[Chevrolet, Nissan]





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Comments (10)

  1. MichaelThwaite avatar Michael Thwaite Posted: 3/3/2011 11:14am PST

    I'm rooting for the Leaf, All-Electrics rock! Rah-rah-rah!
    Sorry, got carried away there. The big question is, what do we think the attrition rate from the 20,000 Leaf orders will be? How many will follow through in the face of increased competition from a possible showing of the Focus EV or the iMiev later in the year?
    I think it'll be initially high, up to 50% but than, as the Leaves hit the roads, the queue will fill back up.
     
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  2. Rob O'Keefe Posted: 3/3/2011 2:55pm PST

    @ Michael. I'm torn, I guess. The LEAF just won't work for me due to my long commute and business trips so I paid a desposit for a Volt for me and I'm trying to convince the wife to get a LEAF/Focus EV/??? ASAP. However, she loves her Mini Cooper...
    I think the dropff rate will be higher, especially if things drag on and other options become available. The same w/ me and the Volt; I'll sell my car third party, never through a dealer, so without knowing when the Volt will become available, it's tough to know when to try to sell my car!
    Bottom line to me is more choice means better options and the higher fuel prices we're seeing may finally push heretofore resistant consumers to hybrids/EVs/diesels.
     
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  3. JP Posted: 3/3/2011 2:57pm PST

    Good point Michael. I am not sure too many people will walk away. Nissan estimated (promised?) 50,000 on the road by December (9 months). I assume they are counting with the Tennessee plant being online. The Focus won't come out until 2012. Then, we'll have real competition. Will anyone be under $30K? How many units will Ford introduce? I'll guess that in 36 months the EVs will outnumber the plug-in hybrids on American roads by significant numbers.
     
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  4. john_v avatar John Voelcker Posted: 3/3/2011 4:50pm PST

    @JP: Just FYI, that 50,000 figure for 2011 is global production, of which 20K were initially allocated to the States. Whether Nissan can deliver that 20K during calendar 2011 is an open question, but many are saying they'll fall somewhat short. The Smyrna plant won't start producing Leafs in volume until early 2013, so the global production of Leafs during 2011 and 2012 will be 50K per year.
     
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  5. JP Posted: 3/4/2011 4:54am PST

    Thank you John. I was not aware that even the 20K number for 2011 was in doubt. Ouch.
     
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  6. LB45 Posted: 3/4/2011 9:37am PST

    I hope they sell tons of Volts, Leafs, Focus(ii?) flavor-of-the-month EVs.
    Just as long as they stop all tax credits. I'm not interested in paying for EV owners to be "first".
     
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  7. fb_100001663981238 avatar Daniel Chavez Moran Posted: 3/4/2011 12:05pm PST

    Well that's some good news for GM, I hope that they do well so that they can repay tax payers for all of the money they borrowed.
     
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  8. CA Posted: 3/4/2011 2:10pm PST

    I think we should not compare apples with oranges. Volt should be compared to Prius (Two hybrid cars)and Leaf to any other REAL electric car. Let us not be brainwashed!
     
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  9. Ken Fry Posted: 3/4/2011 6:39pm PST

    @CA
    The Volt goes 40 miles per day on electricity. That's 15,000 miles per year, about the average car mileage accumulation. So for many people, it will function as an electric car all the time, but will also appeal to people who cannot have several cars, and who need to occasionally do more than commute.
    Prius runs only on gasoline, so is not an electric car at all.
     
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  10. George Parrott Posted: 3/6/2011 9:22am PST

    We HAVE both the Volt (VIN #679) and the LEAF (VIN #320). We replaced a 2006 Prius and a 2007 Camry Hybrid with these "EVs."
    For at least 90% of our annual drive trips the Volt will never go beyond it's EV range, and for the remaining 10% of it's use, it will be reassuring that we have that ICE range extension. I would further note that the Volt has a more "European car" feel in both the interior and the ride feedback (We have also owned BMW, Audi, VW Passat), and that for anyone with only a "1 car family" the Volt would be THE choice.
    The LEAF has MORE room inside and is lighter and more open feeling inside. In the mild Sacramento area "winter," we are getting 80+ miles of functional range though we NEVER try to push it past about "30 miles remaining." The LEAF has both "passive locking/unlocking" and a rear window wiper which are lacking in the Volt, by the way, but the LEAF's GPS mapping database is at least 4 years OUT-OF-DATE for our area while the Volt has maps that appear fully current.
     
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