Chevy Bolt Sales Slide in the Midst of More Production
Chevy’s signature EV is struggling to find sales success in 2018
Earlier this year, Chevrolet announced that it would be increasing production of the Chevrolet Bolt EV by 20 percent to keep up with demand for the vehicle. However, it would seem that this demand is not currently present in the United States.
After all, Chevrolet Bolt sales fell 41.1 percent during the third quarter of the year.
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By the end of the third quarter, Chevrolet had sold 3,949 Bolt vehicles. Yet, during the third quarter of 2017, Chevy sold 6,710 units of the vehicle.
Year-to-date, Bolt sales are also on the decline. So far in 2018, Chevy has delivered 11,807 Bolts, a sales decrease of 17.4 percent.
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Chevrolet has stated that this sales decline is not due to a lack of demand from U.S. customers. Instead, the automaker attributes it to various production restrictions.
“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 explains. “We’re still proceeding with the Q4 production increase we announced in the last sales release.”
Nevertheless, Chevy says that it will be diverting production to other markets. One such market is Canada, where the model is especially popular in the Ontario area.
The Volt is back on top in terms of Chevy’s EV offerings
There is a silver lining for Chevy in all of this. Sales for its Volt model, which had previously been down due to the success of the Bolt, were actually on the rise during the third quarter.
Chevrolet sold 5,429 Volts during this time, a 22.9 percent sales increase. Indeed, the Volt is currently outselling the Bolt in 2018, with a sales total of 13,243 units.
It’s not too surprising to see the Bolt fail to live up to its stellar first sales year. If this trend continues, though, then Chevy might have a serious EV issue on its hands.
News Source: CNBC
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