August 2010 Equinox Sales Decrease
Wow! For the first time in a long time (ever??), sales of the ultra popular Chevy Equinox actually decreased year over year. Thats right, GM released sales units for August 2010 today, and sales of the Equinox came in at 10,538 units, down 19.9% versus August 2009.
Now, before all you doomsayers go jump off a tall building while screaming the economy is falling! the economy is falling!, just stop and listen. No need to panic. This months numbers were going head to head against the awesome Cash for Clunkers program month of August 2009. That means they sold a huge number of fuel efficient Chevy Equinox vehicles in August 2009.
If you look at models that were not eligible for the Cash For Clunkers sales event, those being Chevy Silverado sales, Avalanche, Tahoe, and Suburban; these four models combined were up 8% over last August. So you can see that things are still looking good for General Motors, and the automotive industry in general. And while Chevy Equinox sales were down year over year this month, sales year to date for the Equinox are up a whopping 78%. Not too shabby I’d say.
Chevy Equinox Best In Class
The positive press on the hot selling Chevy Equinox continues to mount. The latest award for the Chevy Equinox was announced last week, along with awards to the Chevy Camaro and the Chevy Suburban. The Chevy Equinox won Best in Class in the Premium Mid Size Crossover SUV category, in the 2010 Ideal Vehicle Awards. Now thats a mouthful!
The 2010 Ideal Vehicle Awards are an annual award in the AutoPacific survey. While it may not sound all that spectacular, in fact, they are a great indicator of the popularity of the Chevy Equinox with actual consumers, as the Awards are based on over 42,000 surveys conducted by U.S. vehicle owners, from just the Q1 2010 quarter.
With the award the survey shows the satisfaction of owners with their new Chevy Equinox in terms of size, power, comfort, handling, tech, safety and visibility, as well as many other important factors.
There’s no wonder Chevy Equinox continues to blow away sales benchmarks, and the competition too!
Chevy Equinox Sales Increase. Again.
I know I’m starting to sound like a broken record here on ChevyEquinox.org but it’s not my fault. Really. GM reported their sales for March, along with all the other car makers, with a blowout increase of 43% over March 2009 figures! Not surprisingly, the popular Chevy Equinox crossover SUV led the way with an insane 194% increase over last March!
GM looked great across the board, with their GMC/Buick lines showing a 54% increase over last years March figures. It seems Chevy Equinox is not the only winner these days, as the Buick LaCrosse was a huge winner at 254% over last years figures, while the GMC Terrain was up a whopping 331%. Pretty impressive numbers for a company just out of bankruptcy.
March sales of the Chevy Equinox were 12,805 versus 4,361 last March.
Year to date, the Chevy Equinox has doubled in sales over last year. As I reported in an earlier post, GM has finally reacted to the supply shortage of the Equinox, announcing plans last week to add additional manufacturing capacity for the popular crossover SUV. More on that later.
Overall, more promising news with these March Sales numbers for GM overall, and specifically, for Chevy Equinox. This crossover SUV is on a roll, and will be for some time.
Chevy Equinox Fuel Cell By 2015
Well it appears to be official! With a new rollout of next generation Chevy Equinox Fuel Cell test cars, GM is one step closer to their plans of a production Fuel Cell Vehicle (FCV) by 2015. GM has been testing a hundred of the Chevy Equinox Hydrogen Fuel Cell test cars in the United States since 2008, in a little talked about study to improve the longevity of the hydrogen fuel cells.
The fuel cells in the original Chevy Equinox test vehicles had bee seeing a service life of around 50,000 miles. GM just rolled out a new version of the Chevy Equinox Fuel Cell model for a consumer test, and expect (or hope?) that this one sees 100,000 miles. In addition to the longer service life, the new equinox fuel cell is half the size, 220 pounds lighter AND uses one third the amount of platinum than the previous fuel cell. This appears to be a big breakthrough as size and weight has been an issue for fuel cells, and of course much less platinum helps drive costs lower. Hopefully this will help lower the cost to the consumer when the Chevy Equinox fuel cell vehicle (FCV) finally comes to mass production. With the smaller sized fuel cell, it will be possible to roll the fuel cell out to smaller vehicles as well.
Well done GM!
Chevy Equinox Sales Double
Chevy Equinox February 2010 sales showed what we already knew, this is one hot crossover SUV! General Motors announced improved overall sales for February, with an increase of 32% over last year. But the big numbers came from their popular Chevy Equinox, with a huge sales increase of 121 percent over February of last year! Sweetness.
This was the fifth consecutive month of year over year retail sales growth for General Motors four brands, indicating the economy is picking up and helping GM get back to firmer financial footing. But again, the big winners were the Chevy Equinox, the GMC Terrain, and the Cadillac SRX, which had a combined sales increase of 198% over same period last year! This is the seventh month in a row that these three vehicles have had increases of greater than 100%. Wow!
GM feels that these three vehicles, and especially the Chevy Equinox, have what consumers are looking for in a new vehicle: fuel economy, styling, quality build, and the security of OnStar.
So, overall things are looking pretty good for General Motors and especially their crossover segment, which include the Chevy Equinox. Their news release today didn’t give out detailed sales figures like the other automakers which is kind of weird. Would like to see full details on the Chevy Equinox numbers and comparisons. As I said in my previous post, I hope that GM can get their Equinox production capacity issues resolved quickly. If they can, I suspect there will be many more months of triple digit sales gains for the Chevy Equinox.
An Electric Chevy Equinox?
I almost fell off my chair when I read about the new 100% electric Chevy Equinox! On February 24, 2010 Advanced Mechanical Products, Inc. (AMP), announced their latest 100% all electric conversion vehicle, the hot selling Chevy Equinox by General Motors. That’s right 100% electric, not a Hybrid Chevy Equinox. They unveiled the new electric Chevy Equinox at the grand opening of their very first showroom.
From PRweb AMP News Release
AMP is the first company to sell a 100% electric crossover SUV, and they made the right choice with the Chevy Equinox, Consumer Digest’s Best Buy award winner. With the surging sales of the Equinox, and the increasing interest in electric only vehicles (like the Aptera electric car), this should be a high profile conversion for AMP and huge sales success. The AMP Chevy Equinox specs indicate a top speed of 90 miles per hour, and a 0 -60 time of a respectable 8 seconds. It will charge at either 110 V or 220 volt. AMP says pricing will be under $50,000 (after incentives), making it an affordable choice for SUV lovers looking to save money on gas.
The electric Chevy Equinox will get up to 150 miles on a charge, compared to only 100 miles on it’s closest competitor, the Nissan Leaf. The Nissan Leaf won’t even be available until sometime in early 2011, giving AMP a leg up on the competition. AMP has totally jumped the gun on Nissan, but it will be interesting to see what kind of price the Nissan Leaf comes out at .
AMP opened it’s first showroom and production facility in Cincinnati, with the Ohio Governor Ted Stricklan expected to attend. They are beginning to take orders now and expect the first converted all electric Chevy Equinox to be delivered in June 2010. AMP will formally unveil their AMP’d Chevy Equinox at the New York Auto Show on April 2, 2010. I can’t wait to see it!
Chevy Equinox Rated Crossover Best Buy
It just gets better and better for the new Chevy Equinox, and for General Motors, the maker of the Equinox. First they announce the good news/bad news scenario of not being able to keep up with demand, as their production of the Equinox is maxed out at their current factory. Now today, Nadaguides.com came out with their annual Best Car Buys for 2010 lists, and the wildly popular Chevy Equinox is ranked the number one best buy in the Crossover division.
While I always chuckle at the number and frequency of these self serving marketing PR’s, it none the less gives me great pride when my favorite car, the 2010 Chevy Equinox, gets mentioned in one of them. And boy has Chevy, and the Equinox in particular been getting a lot of mention in these lists!
The particular model that one first place was the 2010 Chevrolet Equinox 4dr FWD LS . This model has a price of $22,615 and gets a nice 27 MPG. Nadaguides.com states in their release that the Chevy Equinox depreciates 27% after the first year, and that this car is perfect fit for the guidelines used in the survey. I couldn’t agree more!
The Chevy Equinox beat out the Lexus RS450h, the Mazda CX7, the Nissan Rogue, and the VW Tiguan. Some very worthy competitors indeed.
Chevy Equinox Dealer Demand Outpaces Supply
Due to the huge popularity of the 2010 Chevy Equinox, General Motors announced they may have to open previously closed factories, as it struggles to keep up with the massive demand for their popular Equinox crossover SUV. GM said they just can’t make the Chevy Equinox fast enough, in their current open manufacturing plants. According to GM official Mark Reuss, all current Equinox plants are at capacity, as are the plants making the GMC Terrain and the Cadillac SRX Crossover. He announced this at the Detroit Auto Show.
One of the plants GM is considering bringing online again is the Spring Hill, Tennessee, but they have not made any publicly announced decisions yet on which facilities may be reopened. Until a decision is made, GM is looking at short term options to try and raise output of the Chevy Equinox at their Canadian factory in Ingersoll, Ontario.
It’s ironic that GM, coming out of bankruptcy and still trying to get back on solid financial ground, has several new cars (including the Chevy Equinox) that are wildly popular with North American consumers, yet doesn’t have the operating capacity to make and sell those vehicles. Due to the necessary closures of 14 manufacturing facilities while in bankruptcy, GM just can’t take advantage of all this pent up demand for new fuel efficient vehicles. Hopefully GM can find a way to increase it’s capacity to make the Chevy Equinox, as this is one car that is destined to bring GM back to some semblance of it’s previous glory.
Either way, overall, this huge demand is positive for the success of Chevy Equinox as a vehicle, and for GM, as a auto manufacturing company. FYI, GM announced it sold 9,513 Chevy Equinox’s in January, according to Autodata figures. In comparison, Honda CR-V sales were 9,672 and Toyota sold 7,894 RAV4′s. Just imagine how the Chevy Equinox would have sold if they could have been delivered to all the Equinox dealers!
Buy that New Chevy Equinox Now!
If you’ve been researching the awesome new Chevy Equinox, but weren’t sure if it really is the crossover SUV for you, now is the time to buy! With GM’s appealing new incentives program that lets unsatisfied car buyers bring their cars back to the dealer within 60 days, you’ve got nothing to lose! So get to your dealer now and check out that sweet new Chevy Equinox you’ve been considering.
There are some things to thing about before jumping right in. If you decide to bring your new Chevy Equinox back, it must have less than 4000 miles on it, and very little in the way of scratches (less than $200). You’ll also lose any fees paid for registration, taxes and any finance charges.
So if you were already considering a new Chevy Equinox, this program could limit your risk if you are sure you want a Chevy, but aren’t sure whether you want that sexy new Chevy Equinox, or maybe a bigger SUV. But be sure to check this out soon, as the program is likely only around until November 30th, 2009.
Chevy Equinox Plant Adding Shift
DETROIT (Reuters) – General Motors Co said on Tuesday it is increasing production in North America for the second half of 2009 after a surge in sales ignited by the U.S. government’s “Cash for Clunkers” incentives program. It is especially adding production of the very popular Chevy Equinox Crossover SUV.
The No. 1 U.S. carmaker said it would build 60,000 more vehicles than planned for the third and fourth quarters by increasing overtime and adding shifts at several North American assembly plants.
The move will bring about 1,350 hourly workers in the United States and Canada back to assembly lines, GM said.
With the actions, GM now plans to produce 535,000 vehicles in the third quarter, and build at least 20 percent more vehicles in the fourth quarter than the third.
“We are extremely short on a number of products and our dealers are clamoring for more vehicles in almost every segment,” GM U.S. sales chief Mark LaNeve said on a conference call.
“We’re probably not done. We are probably going to continue to ratchet up (production) in the next several months,” LaNeve said.
GM is adding shifts at its Ontario, Canada, plant where it builds the Chevy Equinox and the GMC Terrain SUVs, and its Lordstown, Ohio, plant where the Chevy Cobalt car is produced.
GM also said it expected to increase production of the Chevy Camaro sports car, Buick LaCrosse sedan, Cadillac SRX crossover and CTS Wagon based on consumer demand.
GM joins other automakers including Ford Motor Co in raising output after the runaway success of the rebates program, which offers payments of up to $4,500 to people who trade in old gas guzzlers for fuel-efficient vehicles, helping the companies reduce a glut of unsold cars and trucks.
By late July, the “clunkers” program, inspired by similar programs in Europe, had been drained of the $1 billion in its original budget. Congress authorized another $2 billion to extend the program.
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Chevy Equinox Pictures