Well, as many have said, one really shouldn't compare the 2 vehicles, since Volt is a plug-in hybrid and LEAF is an EV. Thus, I don't believe that it's relevant to say "whether the LEAF OR [not "of"] the Volt will be the overall plug-in champ."

Having said that, I wonder if the 20000 figures is still an up-to-date # to be used? I've seen many articles using 12000 as a sales target for the LEAF. Still hard to achieve (that means 2000 vehicles / month).

With the slower momentum at end of year (economy, holiday season, and 2012 roll out now), Nissan maybe looking @ less than 1000 vehicles/month, unless the 2012 roll out nationwide does change everything.

Volt, OTOH, won't be able to match that 10000 sales target at all. Not Even Close. Supporters have been using the factory stoppage as an excuse, but that was July/Aug. With production at max output based on resource allocated, 1100 vehicle is extremely disappointing. TO reach that goal, Chevy has to sell 2500 vehicles per month. I haven't seen a $40K+ vehicle (MSRP) hitting that sales # for a LONG time.

The bright side is that there are still people buying. I just hope that this sales momentum isn't limited to the W. Coast and a few East Coast cities only.

I live on Montreal's south shore, in Quebec, Canada. We (my wife and I) just ordered a 2012 Chevrolet Volt at the Vision Chevrolet dealer near our home.

The ordering process is smooth, but the dealer informed us that our car will not be delivered to us before around may-june 2012. That makes it 7-8 months from now.

This makes me believe that the manufacturing/supply cannot actually match the demand for those cars, and thus this can make a bias for the sales figures. (Would volts be more sold if there were more available?) I can't confirm more than that, but my humble opinion is that GM would be able to sell more Volts if they were more available.

@ Francis B.,

Take a look at this fresh off the press article from Detroit (usually they are quite domestics biased), and it will answer your question about manufacturing / supply. In short, the answer is no, it's not a problem in manufacturing. (It really has to do with roll-out, dealer training, parts availability, safety certifications, etc.)

http://www.detnews.com/article/20111101/AUTO01/111010508/1361/Chevy-Volt...

2 tidbits from the article:

Specific to the Volt, GM has indirectly admitted that there is excess supply of the Volt currently @ the dealership level.

"GM has a 72-day supply of the Volt, but GM predicts it will come down as it boosts the number of dealers that sell the vehicle."

In addition, Nissan has conceded officially that it won't meet its 10000 vehicle target by EOY (but in 1st week of 2012). This was down from the 12000 est in the middle of year. More significantly, I'm not sure how GM can insist on a 10000 target at this point.

I just read over the detnews article, and as one anonymous poster said, i must admit that I, too am very skeptical about the 72 day supply.

To have a little data to support my skepticism, I used the www.gm.ca website, choose the chevy volt, and selected the Build and Price, feed my postal code - J4X1K4, and selected search inventory.

As of 15:55 there is 13 volts in inventory listed in the website, in a bunch of the grand Montreal region dealers. I called a few of the list, and althrough those cars show up on the website they are already sold.
So, the 72 days inventory figure stated in the article is vastly uncorrelated to the inventory here in Canada.

I think the situation here in Canada is that there is a limited availability of Volts as most of those nice cars are reserved for the domestic american market. (lucky guys!).

In this day & age, when almost anyone can say anything on the net, wrong info (or mistake) can surely happen. However, Detroit News is an official news media, and it is quoting directly from GM through interviews. Thus, the 72 days figure is correct unless detnews changes it, or someone points to another official report that contradicts it otherwise.

Thus, you've utterly no ground to stand on when trying to challenge that number with some numbers you make up yourself.

A survey of 1 dealership is, by all means, a totally inaccurate method of formulating statistics. The number that detnews has quoted is based on ALL THE GM dealerships in the US (those that are authorized to sell Volt). Here's an example - let's say this particular Walgreens (drug store, nationwide), located at a tourist attraction area, sells a lot of souvenirs and t-shirts. These items have a turn-over rate of just 3 days. Do you see your neighbor drug stores stock up on souvenirs and t-shirts? And do you believe that, by citing the success of this Walgreen's t-shirt and souvenirs sales, that there is a huge market for t-shirts & souvenirs everywhere in the nation, and that every Walgreens must carry a lot of t-shirts and souvenirs?

Here's another article by Eric (same author as this post) from a while back. It's old, but excellent for reference on 2 issues:

http://green.autoblog.com/2011/08/22/chevy-volt-supply-rises-to-22-days-...

(1) The Unofficial day supply in Aug was 22 days. As per Ward's Auto, that translate to 226 vehicles available for sale. Now the "official" day supply is 72 days. That translates to way more than 226 vehicles available in the inventory.

(2) Back then, Chris Perry was citing (officially) 48 hrs on dealer lots. If what Yegor is citing from Edmunds is accurate, i.e. 18 days on dealer lots - that's also a big jump in terms of supply.

I'm bringing this out not as a hater, but I want the GM fans to realize that THERE IS A PROBLEM, whether you like it or not. Don't wait until the last minute or the next thing you'll hear is "it's canceled."

Expecting 2000-5000 sales per month on a 4 seater, $40K + vehicle is just a fairy dream. No hybrid other than Prius have sold more than that number, plus there will be more green vehicles available (iMeV, Focus EV, Coda, etc.) by then. The "green" pie is only this big, you know?

Some of those unexplained Volts were likely shipped overseas.

GM is starting to fill the pipeline to dealers, so production will have to be greater than the units available for sale until the pipe gets full. Also don't forget the 2000+ US dealers must have a demo unit as well.

GSP

@Anonymous

They are US production numbers, that doesn't mean they aren't being shipped to Canada and Europe (Volt/Ampera). The sales numbers are only for the US. You would have to look at GM Canada and GM/Opel in Europe sells to get the complete picture of Volts/Ampera sold versus built. This is no different than the Leaf where they are built in Japan and sold in Japan, US, etc...

@theflew (not verified),

The fact sheet CLEARLY states "Volt" - so it is for the Volt, unless there is official GM documentation that states Volt production # is a combo for Chevrolet Volt & Opel Ampera. Otherwise, everyone needs to treat it as Volt production #. Open Ampera production # is 0 (or so low that it isn't reportable) at this point, based on the fact sheet. There's utterly no point in arguing about that.

Like it or not, that's how data and statistics work. You can twist it however you want, but the fact remains the same.

I can't find the GM Canada detailed production and sales/deliveries statistics as compared to the US one: http://investor.gm.com/sales-production/

Anybody could point to the equivalent (to U.S.) Canadian figures?
On the GM Canada website, there is only a vague keyfacts figure released.

That would help to figure out what are the numbers for the 3300 Volts that are unclear/unexplained, as EV Now wrote in a previous post on this thread.

Thanks!

(continued from my previous comment) How is it possible for Volts to be sitting on dealer lots for 72 days when they have only been available for TWO days? Someone is doing some serious misrepresentation of the facts or perhaps some journalist just got back from a trip in a time machine.

@jim1961,

72 days supply doesn't mean sitting on dealers lot for 2 days (then signed title to prospective owner). There is a link on what that means. In addition, it's a # based on the average of 2220 Chevy Volt dealers, not 1 dealer. Some may have just been off the production line and sold it a few hours after it has been loaded off the delivery truck at the dealers, some may have been produced earlier in the year and sitting in the dealer's lots for a long time (several months). Nevertheless, the average rate is 72 days supply.

It's not that bad as a number. Manufacturers try to have it @ 65-68 days supply. But one thing for sure what this means - there are Volts available, a lot of them. Whoever wants to buy one, can get one.

The flip side is that, if you want one with specific configuration, or if you want one with a discount, or even a 0 markup, that's something outside of the "days supply" statistics.

@jim1961,

" As far as I can tell the 72 day supply is pure BS If you want to believe everything Neil Cavuto says that's your right."

The 72 day supply is from GM VP of Sales, Don Johnson, quoted by Detroit News, not Fox/Neil Cavuto. Are you referring this to GM BS?

"Waiting list" refers to special orders due to specific configuration & price. That doesn't mean Volt's not available. It's very common in the European brands. A few years ago, I even had to wait 4 months to get my vehicle because of special order; the dealership had 6 of the same model (not model level) available immediately.

Well the Volt deliveries and production number has just been released:
Deliveries are a little up from the october number (1108) to 1139 in november.
The Hamtrack production plant also increased production to 2039 units in november.

With the transit time in between, we should see an increase in deliveries follow.

That's positive news!
Anybody has the sales figures of the Leaf?

Francois

Even "MORE" positive news,

GM is buying back Volts from customers! Reported by AP.