Like it or not the pressure has been on for Tesla to step up and begin the mass production it’s promised for the new Model 3 that’s on the way. This new car is expected to be the low priced EV from the automaker that has only previously made luxury EV models and a roadster to give us three models to enjoy. The only problem for Tesla is the fact they haven’t made money on their first three ventures and now may face a market that will be saturated by an EV from another company.
The new Chevrolet Bolt came to the market on December 13 but the real deliveries and sales didn’t begin until the 29th of December. Amazingly there were over 500 of the Chevrolet Bolt EV model sold during the final three days of December. That’s a significant number of these models and now that deliveries have continued to the point of bringing enough of the Bolt to the market it’s in to allow dealers to offer a discount on the Bolt the sales continue to grow in an impressive fashion. The results thus far should have Tesla kicking itself for not being ready to react sooner.
Right now the average number of cars per month sold by Tesla is about 4,000. This is across the two models offered, the Model S and Model X. These are fairly impressive sales for the price and luxury offered on these two models but the reality is the move toward a high volume mode that will be built in the numbers that reach nearly 500,000 units per year is more likely to provide Tesla with the profits they’ve been missing out on so far. This still leaves us looking at the Chevy Bolt as the car that will outsell Tesla by itself.
Consider the sales that took place during the last three days of December for the Bolt and the fact that it was only being sold in California and Oregon at the time, this car is one that’s a seriously impressive selling car. Not only does it already sell well, the limited number available may have held back this number. If you look at the numbers and speculate on a regular sales trend, this car should sell at least 2,000 models per month in just those two states but that’s not where Chevy is stopping at all.
The expectation as the inventory grows is that Chevrolet will be able to sell the Bolt in every state in the country. The beginning is those states that utilize the CARB regulations to offer a great new EV alternative for the customers in these areas. Once those states have the inventory flow they need the rest of the country will have the Bolt EV on sale at Chevrolet dealerships which number in the thousands across the nation. While Tesla still has some areas that won’t allow them to sell, Chevrolet is everywhere with dealerships in nearly every city in the country.
If we were to use a conservative figure and decide that each state would sell 500 units of the Chevrolet Bolt in a month the sales would still be 25,000 units per month. That’s a huge number and one that comes out to be over 300,000 models of the Bolt in the first twelve months on the market. That’s certainly more than what Tesla sells in its entirety right now. The question going forward will be whether the Model 3 can be enough to match or beat the Chevy Bolt, but we won’t know for sure until it reaches the market for us to purchase.
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