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Chevy Volt has worst sales month since August 2011, Nissan Leaf also down

January is traditionally a time when new car shoppers take a break. For the last few years, if we isolate our focus to just the first two major plug-in cars in the US market, we see that the first month of the year was lower – often dramatically lower – than the 11 that followed. So, when you see the Chevy Volt dropped and Nissan Leaf sales figures for January 2015, don't be too surprised. The Volt sold only 542 units last month, that model's lowest since August 2011. That also represents a 41 percent drop from January 2014, and it reinforces the thought that if anyone out there is interested in a new Volt, they're going to be waiting for the new model to drop later this year. While we do expect sales to climb in February and into spring, we won't be surprised if the general Volt trend remains quiet until the second-generation arrives. On the Leaf side of the ledger, January's low sales numbers were still about twice as high as the Volt's – the Leaf sold 1,070 units last month, the lowest since February 2013 – but it did break a streak for the Japanese automaker. Usually, each month represents at least an increase over the same month a year ago, but that wasn't the case this time. In January 2014, Nissan sold 1,252 Leafs. Still, Brendan Jones, Nissan's director of electric vehicle sales and infrastructure, issued an upbeat statement: "We saw a significant increase in demand in December from Nissan Leaf customers looking to take advantage of federal and state incentives at the end of the tax year, which pulled some sales ahead. We're confident that EV sales will continue to rise over time due to increasing emission regulations and other reasons for purchase of EVs such as lower operating costs, reducing dependence on foreign energy sources, environmental concerns and a great driving experience." The numbers will tell us soon enough. News Source: General Motors, Nissan Green Chevrolet Nissan Electric Hybrid ev sales brendan jones

GM announces net 220 job increase as Trump visits Michigan

GM announced today that about 900 jobs would be added (or, importantly, retained) ahead of President Trump's arrival in Michigan, where he is expected to discuss his plan to roll back fuel economy standards. The timing of the announcement is almost certainly not coincidental, as appending it to a Trump visit gives it a higher profile and dovetails with the President's jobs agenda. It's less likely the decision itself was made for those reasons, but the free PR boost is a nice bonus. As for those 900 jobs themselves, they aren't all new jobs. The only net gain is approximately 220 jobs at the Romulus Powertrain Plant, which produces the 10-speed automatic transmission that's proliferating through the company's lineup. The 180 jobs at Flint Assembly and 500 jobs at Lansing Delta Township are retained jobs – that is to say, spots the company found for workers who would otherwise have been laid off. By the way, the Flint jobs will help with production of heavy-duty pickups, and the Lansing jobs are to produce the Chevrolet Traverse and Buick Enclave. Finding jobs for manufacturing workers in the auto sector, whether new or retained, is admirable. No matter how GM couches it, the company has created or retained a total of 7,000 jobs this year, and its total reinvestment in US production is around $1 billion. But these decisions are business ones, not political ones – timing the announcements to make them seem inspired by economic policy, or the political situation, is simply smart PR. Related Video: Image Credit: Bill Pugliano/Getty Images Celebrities Government/Legal Buick Cadillac Chevrolet GMC

Toyota tops Kelley Blue Book's Resale Value Awards

Kelley Blue Book announced its annual Best Resale Value Award winners, and we weren't too surprised to see the list dominated by Japanese automakers - mainly Toyota and Honda. KBB hands out the awards based on the projected residual value of mostly all 2013 model year vehicles, and Toyota skated home with a number of awards including 10 of the 22 overall categories and having five of its products in the top 10 for models with best resale value. KBB's Best Resale Value Awards were announced in the same week as the ALG Residual Value Awards, and there were many similarities between both lists, especially when it came to Toyota.
To come up with its winners, KBB measures depreciation over the first five years of ownership, and looks for the cars it expects to hold its value the best after this time; on average, the report says the 2013 model year vehicles will lose 61.8 percent of its value in five years. Of the 22 categories, 15 slots were filled by Toyota, Honda and Nissan products, while the Camaro and Porsche (Cayenne and Panamera) each took home a pair of awards. If Toyota has anything to be upset about in this list of cars, it's that categories for Hybrid/Alternative Energy Car and Electric Vehicle went to the Ford Fusion and Chevrolet Volt, respectively.
The overall top 10 models for the best resale value in 2013 are, in alphabetical order: