In the 1960s, customers who could only dream of owning a Corvette often left their local Chevy dealers with the keys to a new Impala or Bel-Air. Now, it seems the same thing is happening with the Chevy Volt don’t-call-it-a-hybrid and the Cruze small car.
Year-to-date sales are up some 32% across the range, though only 567 of the 80,000 plus cars the Detroit automaker sold in June were Volts. The remainder were cars like the Cruze, which has earned the crown of Chevy’s biggest seller.
Art Spinella, President of automotive research firm CNW Research, describes the relationship to CNN Money like this:
“Most of the dealers we’ve surveyed use the Volt as a bridge to show other Chevy products. About 80% of the people who go see it aren’t intenders, they’re just going to see what it’s like.”
And what it is like is expensive, impractical and not quite as environmentally friendly as its overseas competitors. At least that’s the position taken by Fortune’s Doron Levin, who’s on my side on the whole plug-in hybrid vs. extended range electric vehicle debate.
The Cruze on the other hand – as we discovered in our recent road test – is a comfortable, well-equipped little highway cruiser (pun intended).
Additionally, with prices starting at US$16,525 in the states the Cruze is more than half the price of the US$40,000 Volt. It’s not a hard choice for most customers to make, now is it?
By Tristan Hankins
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