Nissan released its April 2011 US Sales figures today, GM’s were out Monday.
Nissan sold 573 units in April for a grand total of 1,025 (pdf) since launching the model. April was the best month so far for Nissan. You may recall that March was ugly.
Congratulations to Nissan for breaking the difficult 1,000 unit barrier in only 4 months. How that trend becomes half a million units per year isn’t obvious to me, but then I’m not a scary smart car executive pushing tin boxes that grind to halt after 40 miles or so.
Chevy’s Volt slumped from a March high of 608 units to only 493 cars in April (pdf). No word on how many of those went to GE’s welfare for useless products program. The good news is that Chevrolet sold over 25,000 Cruze models in the same month, proving that people love their free-range fossil fueled cars best.
March’s Leaf sales post poked reader Rob to snark:
Love my Leaf. Think of me next time you swipe your credit card at the pump. Ka-ching!
To which I resnarked:
I’ll think of you next time I drive more than 30 miles without breaking into range anxiety sweat.
Good times. I guess you had to be there.
Round-up tomorrow.
In most parts of Canada, Leaf owners would be lucky to get to the end of their drive in winter before the battery dies.
Headlamps, wipers, screen demister, heater at full blast, radio… what juice is left for turning the wheels?
Thanks Keith, I do love me some Serenity.
I wonder, will the Leaf suffer the same stake through the heart poor Wash did?
“I am a leaf on the wind, watch how I soar…” : Wash, from Serenity.
I wonder if snow tires are available for these cars? I imagine On Star isn’t available for the Volt in Canada—the car has such little range in winter that owners could simply walk home to call for tow
I’ll be thinking about Reader Rob’s $33K-plus investment each time I fill up my $6700 used 2005 Civic (33mpg in town). He also has the future cost of replacing the batteries in the Leaf, which will be more than my car cost.
To keep things in perspective, I just looked up Ferrari sales.
1750 a year for 2010. That’s about 145 a month. Just to show how hopelessly low 500 cars a month is for a mass-market car. Mercedes manage to move over 1,000 S-Class models a month in the US. Funnily enough, people would rather pay big money for a powerful luxury car than big money for a weedy little economy car.
At this rate it will be a major drag on company fortunes for both GM and Nissan. These vehicles must have soaked up a ton of R&D cash.
Well, Leaf buyer, think of me next time you make your loan payment for an expensive short range commuter car. You’ve got to swipe the bowser many, many times before you make up the difference in price.
Bwuhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.
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