Prius c Sales Easily Outpace Plug-In Electric Competitors
Hot new hybrid moves more units in 3 days than either the Volt or the Leaf sold in February.
Maybe we shouldn’t be too surprised by the news that Toyota sold more units of its new Prius c in 36 hours than Chevrolet and Nissan managed in all of February with the Volt and Leaf, respectively.
The Prius c went on sale March 12 and sold 1,201 units within three days. In February, 478 Leafs were sold, down from the 676 sold in January. The Chevrolet Volt sold 1,023 units in February, up from 603 sold in January, but down from the 1,529 sold in December.
Of course, this is far from an apples-to-apples comparison. First, the Prius line has years of branding and marketing behind it. Second, there’s no range anxiety with the Prius and nothing to plug in. Drivers can just pull up to the gas pump as they’re used to doing.
And then there’s price: $19,000 for the Prius c versus $35,000-plus for the Volt and Leaf. While sales of fuel-efficient vehicles are up overall, this news doesn’t bode well for plug-in electric cars in the U.S. It further proves that people want to stick with something they’re familiar with, even if it’s driving what some would consider the poster car for the "green" movement.
[Source: Straightline]
Personally I wouldn't want to own any of these vehicles since they don't suit my needs but if I was commuting to work every day and had to make a choice I certainly wouldn't choose an overpriced, lower quality Nissan or GM over a Prius that costs almost half as much and has a reputation for dependability and holding it's value well. Pretty much a no brainer.
I do not think the Volt nor the Leaf is a failure and it's not a good comparison to compare sales of either the Volt or Leaf to the Prius, which has been established for 10+ years. If you really want an apples to apples comparison, compare the Prius sales 8 years ago to current Volt or Leaf sales. Both the Volt and Leaf are on par initial Prius sales. Also consider that when the Prius was introduced there was NO competition to it. Currently almost every car maker is coming out with a PHEV
The Prius C shouldn't be compared to the Volt. Why?
No matter how you compare it, the Volt is a failure. Simply consider the development cost, marketing dollars, spontaneous combustion while being tested and the overpromised, underdelivered sales figures, estimated MPG ratings (268 when being media hyped) and the over inflated MSRP even with 10,000 instant tax credit funded by other taxpayers.
The Prius on the other hand has proven itself as the hybrid car sales leader based on its own merits.
I wonder if the Volt owner worry if their cars will burst into flames if it gets hit?
This is something else (in addition to the range anxiety thing) that the news media has tended to get wrong. What do you think is more dangerous to carry around in your vehicle, a bunch of charged lithium-ion cells or a bunch of gasoline in a tank?The Volt has both, so I'm not saying that it's automatically safer than a traditional car. But there are an average of 287,000 fires in conventional vehicles each year in the U.S. That's more 750 a day—so commonplace it doesn't make the news. Or put another way, 1 in 1000 vehicles currently on the road in the U.S. will catch fire this year.
So let's pretend that one Volt did "burst into flames" when it got hit (which is not the case, but we're pretending). GM has sold about 10,000 Volts since late 2010, so that would make the Volt roughly 10x safer than the average conventional vehicle with respect to vehicle fires.
[note: I don't think the 287,000 figure includes cars that happened to be parked in garages when those garages burnt down. You could google it. But if so, we'd have to account for the two Volts that were destroyed that way, but that would still be 3x safer than the average conventional vehicle.]
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