Volt/Ampera production motoring along at about 1155 per week.

[Ziv]

Well it has been a couple weeks since I posted my weekend study of the highest VIN's on Chevy.com for the Volt. The VIN gets assigned when the Volt/Ampera chassis gets sent to the paint shack, not when it rolls out the door, so these numbers are more a prediction of how many Volts/Amperas are going to be rolling out of Hamtramck in two to four weeks, not today's sales or even tomorrow's. It would appear that GM has found a sweet spot as they have been painting 1130 Volts a week, plus or minus 40, since early March, and February was just a bit lower than that. About a third (quarter?) of that number has gone to Canada as Volts or to Europe as Amperas, so the question is, 'When did the post-hiatus production first start arriving in dealerships?' If the production started to arrive in early May, this could be a real record breaking month! I think, though, that California especially was short of Volts until just about a week ago.
All in all, I would still bet that the Volt has a record sales month in May!

08/1 - C440 -- building around 150 per week (first 100 were test cars)
08/23 - C1736 - building around 420 per week
09/1 - C3032 - building around 500 per week
10/3 - C4260 - around 273 per week for Sept
10/17 - C6992 - around 1366 for each of the first 2 weeks of Oct
10/25 - C8129 - around 995 for the third week of Oct
11/1 - C8996 - around 873 for the fourth week of Oct
11/8 - C9508 - around 512 for the first week of November
11/16 – C10253 – around 745 for 8 days (rate of 652 per week)
11/19 - C10372 – 119 in 3 days (rate of 278 per week)
11/26 - C10921 - 549 in 7 days
11/30 - C11581 - 660 in 4 days (rate of 1155 per week) or 1209 in 11 days (rate of 769 per week)
12/19 – C13071 - 1490 in 19 days (rate of 549 per week)
12/27 -- C13775 - 704 in 8 days (rate of 616 per week)
01/04 – C13775! – 0 in 8 days
02/05 – C13775! – 0 in 38 days
02/16 – C15414 – 1639 in 11 days!
03/3 – C17736 – 3961 in 4 weeks
03/10 – C18972 – 5197 in 5 weeks (1040 wkly) or 1236 in 1 week
03/17 -- C20115 -- 6340 in 6 weeks (1056 wkly) or 1143 in 1 week
04/15 -- C20115 - Production to re-start one week early on 04/16
04/22 -- C20854 – 739 in a week
04/29 – C21944 – 1829 in 2 weeks (915 wkly) or 1090 in previous week
05/5 - C23118 -- 3003 in 3 wks (1000 wkly) or 1174 in previous week
05/12 - C24214 -- 4099 in 4 wks (1025 wkly) or 1096 in previous week
05/19 – C25369 -- 5254 in 5 wks (1051 wkly) or 1155 in previous week

Production by month estimates

1/11 - 580
2/11 - 620
3/11 - 800
4/11 – 700
5/11 - 600
6/11 - 0
7/11 – 600
8/11 – 2592
9/11 – 1128?
10/11- 4836
11/11 – 2585
12/11 - 2194
1/12 – 0
2/12 - 3561
3/12 - 2780 (closed for the month?)
4/12 – 2029 (produced 4/16 – 4/30)

[drbruns]

so the question is, 'When did the post-hiatus production first start arriving in dealerships?

My special order Volt was built the second week and should be at the No Virginia dealer today or tomorrow. I see on their web site they have 4 in stock and 10 in transit. When I go there to get my Volt I will try and find out how many other of the "in transit" Volts also came in with my car.

[scottf200]

From R.B. on facebook 19May2012 at 10:46am:

Delivering my first Volt in a month... The dry spell is over... Thank you, GM. 40 more coming in! Yeah!!

[Koz]

I think resumed production will push sales back to about 2k but it started too late for record sales. Look for June to break the record. If dealer actually onsite inventory ever gets to 6k or more, look for sales of 3+k/mo and talk of adding capacity beyond the current max of ~1500/week. I also think the 2013 base price will be $37,490 which will help bring the demand we have all been looking for. Hopefully GM sees things similarly and doesn't make more of the poor decisions that have contributed to the muted Volt success thus far.

[tboult]

I think resumed production will push sales back to about 2k but it started too late for record sales. Look for June to break the record. If dealer actually onsite inventory ever gets to 6k or more, look for sales of 3+k/mo and talk of adding capacity beyond the current max of ~1500/week. I also think the 2013 base price will be $37,490 which will help bring the demand we have all been looking for. Hopefully GM sees things similarly and doesn't make more of the poor decisions that have contributed to the muted Volt success thus far.

Don't think we'll see inventory of 6K.. Cars.com is at 3800 (and is generally an inflated number anyhow) and has not been increasing. And remember the shutdown to switch to 2013 production is coming.

[Ziv]

drbruns, I hope you are picking up your car this weekend! And I hope you have stocked up on car washing material, keeping that diamond white looking good is going to be a full time job! LOL. I still love the way the black looks, since it covers up the darker rocker panel color. Though as has been stated many a time on this site, the red Volts must be faster!
I had thought that since production re-started 4/16, that deliveries would have started early this month, but judging from what I have heard here, maybe deliveries didn't start late in the first week but late in the second week of May. Which would mean beating 2289 for May is going to be difficult.
Scott, is that quote from R.B. recent? I hope it was from early last week, at least.
I am still hoping for an MSRP reduction to just below $37.5k. And as regards to the shutdown, an article I read early last week said that the summer shutdown was going to lengthened from 2 weeks to 3 weeks to allow for changes to the line. Which is kind of odd, I thought that the normal shutdown was 3-4 weeks. As long as the summer break isn't as long as the 6 week Christmas hiatus we saw 6 months ago...
Nothing seems normal about the Volt, probably because it is so closely watched, both by supporters and detractors.

[Koz]

Don't think we'll see inventory of 6K.. Cars.com is at 3800 (and is generally an inflated number anyhow) and has not been increasing. And remember the shutdown to switch to 2013 production is coming.

Agreed that it won't be anytime soon that 6000 Volts will be on dealers' lots, October at the earliest but likely not even then. I'm just trying to drive home the point that true demand cannot be known without that level of supply and that sales with the constricted supply indicate this at least this much demand. Unfortunately, GM is scheduling based on dealer demand and most dealers aren't in the mindset to take much of an inventory risk on a car that is being targeted by the political right, especially since it is in unchartered waters for some. The bean counter metrics don't apply well for the Volt and I believe these have influenced some of GM's decisions and contributed a significant degree to the lower than projected sales thus far.