What the dealer told me about Bolt sales

[michael]

Today I picked up my new Volt and spoke to the sales manager about the reasons I had ultimately gone for a Volt rather than the Bolt I had expected to buy

He told me that the dealers were building up very large inventories of unsold Bolts, and that "something needs to happen" in order for Bolts to start moving. He said there was a program in place where a Bolt would be driven to a potential customer's home or office to facilitate the initial sales contact without the prospect needing to visit a dealer; and that there was an overnight test drive program.

Hopefully there will also be an adjustment of selling price in the near future...? I think this would help a lot.

 

[LeftieBiker]

Here in Upstate NY, near Albany (the Capital) there are no more than one or two Bolts in stock anywhere, and probably none at all. They show up as being "in stock" when they are ordered by customers, when they arrive. The dealers have little interest in carrying them. I might have been able to drive one last month, but now there are none to test drive, AFAIK.

 

[SparkE]

Today I picked up my new Volt and spoke to the sales manager about the reasons I had ultimately gone for a Volt rather than the Bolt I had expected to buy

He told me that the dealers were building up very large inventories of unsold Bolts, and that "something needs to happen" in order for Bolts to start moving. He said there was a program in place where a Bolt would be driven to a potential customer's home or office to facilitate the initial sales contact without the prospect needing to visit a dealer; and that there was an overnight test drive program.

Hopefully there will also be an adjustment of selling price in the near future...? I think this would help a lot.

The bolded sounds like a comment a dealer in California would make. It appears that CA (?due to CARB/ZEV mandates/credits?) got a *huge* allotment of vehicles (while other areas got very little) and that there is now unsold inventory. I stopped by a dealer in San Jose a few days ago and they had over 100 cars ON THE LOT (row after row after row of new Bolts sitting there). When I said I was interested in a Bolt, the three salesmen almost visibly drooled (until I said "... after my current lease is up, next year.")

All Chevy has to do is ship to other states for a while and that 'glut' will very soon be re-absorbed.

 

[LeftieBiker]

I'll bet that a lot of them have no heated seats or steering wheels, and will have to be sent to Southern states. Brilliant work, GM.

 

[GetOffYourGas]

Here in Upstate NY, near Albany (the Capital) there are no more than one or two Bolts in stock anywhere, and probably none at all. They show up as being "in stock" when they are ordered by customers, when they arrive. The dealers have little interest in carrying them. I might have been able to drive one last month, but now there are none to test drive, AFAIK.

Despite your relative abundance of DCQC, Albany is hardly a hot spot for EVs. It seems that they are much more popular in Syracuse and Rochester. I know here in Syracuse, the local dealer keeps a stock of LTs. The only options are the heated seats/wheel and the DCQC. But still, they sell a lot more Volts than Bolts.

One of my big questions is regarding a longer trip in a Bolt. I regularly travel 250-300 miles (each way) to visit family. About twice a month on average. I would love to have a Bolt for a weekend, and put 600 miles on it, just to see how it does. That's a bit much for a test drive, but I'd be willing to pay a normal rental fee. Would be great if GM offered a program like that, where someone could really get a feel for what it's like to live with a 238-mile BEV.

 

[michael]

Depending on where you live there may be. That's what I did in effect. Rented one for the day and then decided against it

Here in Los Angeles they are available on Maven which is GMs zip car equivalent

 

[GetOffYourGas]

Certainly not available to rent in upstate NY. Not yet, at least. Although NYC is now a "Maven" city. The trouble is, I'd need to get to NYC first.

 

[OrangeCountyCarl]

I'll bet that a lot of them have no heated seats or steering wheels, and will have to be sent to Southern states. Brilliant work, GM.

GM only builds what the dealers order. I had to "special order" a base Bolt because the dealer inventory in my area was everything but a Bolt without bells & whistles.

My dealer in OC (CA not NY) said the Bolts "are selling like hot cakes". It is a large dealership and they have had only 2-3 on the lot when I have visited. Their initial allotment of 40 was sold within 2 months.

Guess it all depends on where one lives.

 

[michael]

I'll bet that a lot of them have no heated seats or steering wheels, and will have to be sent to Southern states. Brilliant work, GM.

GM only builds what the dealers order. I had to "special order" a base Bolt because the dealer inventory in my area was everything but a Bolt without bells & whistles.

My dealer in OC (CA not NY) said the Bolts "are selling like hot cakes". It is a large dealership and they have had only 2-3 on the lot when I have visited. Their initial allotment of 40 was sold within 2 months.

Guess it all depends on where one lives.

What does that dealer's web site show? The "selling like hotcakes" is possibly salesman talk, and they may have a large number stockpiled off site.

Typical Los Angeles dealer inventory:

Keyes: 150 in stock
Rydell: 111 in stock
Harbor: 39
Community: 174
Gwynn: 92

And there are a lot more dealers, these are just the ones that crossed my mind

etc. etc.

They are piling up at the dealers it looks like. Your dealers initial 40 may have gone in two months, but I bet they have a ton more that were delivered since.

 

[bravo]

Inventories are up (100's) and discounts have begun ($4K off MSRP) in the SF Bay area. Great lease deals ($180-250) too.

 

[Nagorak]

Some of these dealers look to be specializing in Bolts. They have a very large number of Bolts in comparison to their entire inventory of cars. You don't end up with 100+ Bolts on the lot by accident. So, what does the inventory tell you?

Focusing on the numbers on a few specialized lots is like going to a car dealership and saying "Look at all these cars, they must not be selling." In reality it's meaningless. The cars are always there because they're constantly replaced. To get a real picture we'd need to know a whole lot more about how many cars have come in, how many have sold, how many have been reordered, etc.

Even at 1000 sales per month, guessing that half of them are in CA, having a large number of Bolts on a few specialized dealerships doesn't mean a whole lot. If they're selling even a dozen a week, they'll go through that inventory pretty quickly.

That being said the dealers are clearly offering significant discounts. So that does say something. I'm just not convinced the absolute numbers are all that informative.

 

[michael]

The sales manager specifically told me that Bolts aren't selling well and that something needed to change.

The listing of dealers with large inventories was in response to the poster who said they must be selling well because his dealer has only a few on his lot.

I know why I decided against a Bolt after craving one for a year, and it wasn't the price. I was prepared to pay. It was the interior comfort. It wasn't comfortable for me and I didn't want to feel that way every day for three years.

My guess is that many others are influenced by price. This st least Chevy can do something about.

 

[LeftieBiker]

The listing of dealers with large inventories was in response to the poster who said they must be selling well because his dealer has only a few on his lot.

My local dealers mostly have no Bolts. One or two have one car technically "in stock" but possibly already sold. This is NOT, however, because the cars are selling great. It's because the dealers don't want to stock them.

 

[Nagorak]

I think the expectations for the Bolt were too high. In the end it's an EV and the general public isn't interested in EVs (yet). The price is also a bit too high. It's actually hard to justify vs the Volt which for all intents and purposes is an EV for the first 50 miles which will meet most people's needs most of the time, but then ends up being better at going long distance when you need it. So, anyway, it is what it is.

 

[michael]

It's actually hard to justify vs the Volt which for all intents and purposes is an EV for the first 50 miles which will meet most people's needs most of the time, but then ends up being better at going long distance when you need it. So, anyway, it is what it is.

Which is one of the reasons why I ultimately ended up with two Volts instead of a Volt and a Bolt. But the deciding factor was that I found the Volt more comfortable.

Over the next three years I expect to use no more gasoline than most people would use in three months. And I don't need to worry about availability of DCFC while on the road. But I still would have gone for the Bolt had I liked sitting in it.

 

[astroboy]

well, the "bring it to your house for a test-drive" thing has been going on for at least a couple of months here in the bay area... before leasing one we had chevy bring one out. i believe it's being run by corporate and farmed out to a 3rd party - the dealer did not know much about the program and was kind of vaguely aware that there was a demo car that sometimes appeared on their lot.

i agree the interior comfort is not stellar. i need to do the seat padding retrofit...