Update On Electric Vehicles; GM's 2-Year Supply Of Cadillac ELR; GM Selling Less Volts Than Last Year; Tesla Debt -- Junk Bond Status

I track electric vehicles at this post.

Three items to be added today.

First: GM with a 2-year supply of the new Cadillac ELR. The graphic at the site is quite incredible. And worrisome, I suppose for GM.

Second: Tesla's debt is now junk-bond status.

Third, the Chevy Volt story: Chevy Volt sales fall to 2-year low earlier this year.

Yet GM sold only 918 Volts, the car’s worst monthly showing since January of 2012 when 603 were sold (and also the last time less than 4 digits were moved).

Those 918 sales represent 19.5% decrease compared 2013 when 1,140 left dealer lots.

And while we thought that new production may kick into high gear at GM’s Hamtramck facility, that really didn’t happen as national inventories continued to hover near 12 month lows – which means besting February 2013′s surprising 1,626 sales level might also be more than a little tricky.

Again on the technical ‘plus side,’ GM also had some difficulties managing Volt inventory in early 2013; meaning Spring is the company’s best opportunity to put once again put some distance between 2014 and 2013 results.

Despite being the best selling plug-in vehicle in the United States last year, inventory issues late in 2013 meant that Chevrolet actually sold less Volts that in 2013 than the year prior (23,094 vs 23,461) … a result we are sure General Motors does not want to repeat.

In April, 2014: Nissan Leaf widens lead over Chevy Volt.

The Nissan Leaf battery-electric hatchback continued its stronger sales trend from March: 2,088 Leafs found new owners, lower than the March number of 2,507 (its second-best month ever, after December last year).

That figure, however, brings the total number of Leafs delivered in 2014 to 7,272, fully one-third higher than the same four-month period last year.

And it widens the Leaf's lead over the Chevy Volt range-extended electric car, which logged 1,548 deliveries, bringing its total for the first four months of 2014 to 5,154. That's less than last year's 5,550 during the same period.