Chevy Volt Sales Neck & Neck With Toyota Camry Hybrid, & It Beats Almost Every Other Hybrid

Despite the generally negative view on all-electric vehicle sales performance in the US over the past few years, when you look closer at the numbers, it appears that some plug-in vehicles are becoming increasingly competitive with popular non-plug-in hybrids as of late.

In particular, the Tesla Model S (which is #1 in its car class) and the second-generation Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid (PHEV) have been going neck and neck in sales with many of the most popular conventional hybrids out there. The only conventional hybrids that have been outselling the Model S and the Chevy Volt as of late are the Toyota Prius and the new RAV4 hybrid, apparently.

As an interesting comparison, the second-generation Volt managed to move 12,214 units between January and July of this year — as compared to 12,494 Toyota Camry Hybrid sales and 12,975 Toyota Prius C sales during the same period of time. The Volt is actually now outselling all but 5 hybrids available in the US, out of a field of more than 35!

That’s pretty incredible when you consider how much of a price difference there is between the different models, and it shows how much more mainstream the Chevy Volt has been become than other plug-in cars.

As these very interesting comparisons were brought to my attention by Jeff Cobb’s interesting article over at GM-Volt.com, I’ll go ahead and quote some of the most interesting passages from his coverage:

“Here the comparison is closer than Tesla’s segment-transcending Model S luxury performance sedan. The Volt is positioned as a fuel-saving part-time electric car, and the market is indeed rewarding Chevrolet over better-established, and cheaper hybrids from the well-regarded Toyota. As true of Tesla, not hurting things is a $7,500 federal tax credit and potential state incentives, which in the Volt’s case gives it nearly net cost parity with the Camry Hybrid which received a through mid-cycle update in 2015.”

It should be remembered, though, that the entirety of the $7,500 federal tax credit isn’t actually available to everyone — many people don’t make enough money to benefit from the full credit. And even those who do have to wait until they’re doing their taxes to get the credit — not everyone can wait that long when dealing with $7,500. These factors limit the number of people who can make use of the credit. (Obviously, if there were cheaper plug-ins available, then this wouldn’t be the case.)

Continuing:

“The Volt is helped by many other factors not least being it was redesigned in 2016, and it has a reputation as being fun to drive and high-tech cool. It’s dimensionally smaller than the true-five-passenger Camry however, and still much more pricey than the Prius c which will be due for a refresh, having been introduced in 2012. People in this green car demographic otherwise know the Volt’s 53-miles EV range can make it effectively gas-free for more than 80% of all daily driving needs, so that and other psychographic factors mean it could be called a relative success.”

What I’m curious about, though, is what will happen to Volt sales following the launch of the all-electric Chevy Bolt. Will Volt sales drop considerably? Or will there not be much overlap in potential customers?