This past week, auto sales figures for November came out. As one would expect, there's been a lot of focus on electric vehicles and how they have been selling.
Everyone is eager to jump down General Motor's and Nissan's throat and say "The Volt and Leaf did NOT live up to the hype, AND they're goofy-looking too!"
It's like a fifth grade cafeteria fight, really.
Reviewers across the board, even our own 001, have gone out and said the Volt is a pretty amazing product. Sure it's seats could be better and it takes a long time to heat up, so it's not going to meet everyone's expectations.
But to call it a total failure is a bit short sighted. Although it hasn't been a runaway hit, it sure as hell drove a ton of folks into Chevrolet's showrooms and there's one figure that I think has gone unnoticed: Chevrolet Cruze sales.
According to the November sales report, the Cruze sold over 215,000 units. That's pretty substantial.
Even if the Volt doesn't ratchet up sales into 2012, I think the more critical element is making this powertrain scalable across other products. For example, whenever GM wants to do a Cadillac version, I think that would be pretty helpful as it could eek out a higher margin per vehicle sold.
What say you, Spies? Are the Volt's sales figures THAT important?
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