While Quarterly Corvette Sales Are Down in 2018, the Decline Is Not Unexpected
As you may recall, GM announced that it was going to transition from monthly to quarterly reporting beginning in quarter two, 2018. We are pleased to present the first quarterly update since that transition.
Chevrolet reported that they sold a total of 5,785 Corvettes between April-June, 2018. This is a sales decrease of 26.2% in total Corvette sales as compared to total units sold from April-June, 2017.
Since January, Chevrolet has sold a total of 10,242 Corvettes. This is a sales decrease of 25.3% as compared to sales during the first-half of 2017, where Chevrolet sold a total of 13,707 Corvettes during that same period.
It should be noted that these large sales decreases from 2017 to 2018 were expected by GM following the Corvette production changes that occurred after last summer’s plant renovations.
Perhaps one of the largest questions we’ve received related to the metrics behind Corvette sales is this – why the change in sales reporting – a quarterly update versus a a monthly update – by GM?
Per Kurt McNeil, General Motors U.S. Vice President of Sales Operations, the answer is pretty straight forward:
“Thirty days is not enough time to separate real sales trends from short-term fluctuations in a very dynamic, highly competitive market. Reporting sales quarterly better aligns with our business, and the quality of information will make it easier to see how the business is performing.”
Here are the statistical numbers from GM’s Sales Report for Corvettes in the 2nd Quarter of 2018:
US Corvette Sales by Quarter with Totals
Year | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Q4 | Yearly Total |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2006 | 9,292 | 9,771 | 8,840 | 8,615 | 36,518 |
2007 | 8,176 | 8,904 | 8,091 | 7,836 | 33,007 |
2008 | 6,778 | 8,176 | 8,430 | 3,587 | 26,971 |
2009 | 3,052 | 4,446 | 3,297 | 3,139 | 13,934 |
2010 | 2,433 | 3,922 | 3,443 | 2,826 | 12,624 |
2011 | 2,839 | 4,057 | 3,374 | 2,894 | 13,164 |
2012 | 2,932 | 4,090 | 3,548 | 3,562 | 14,132 |
2013 | 2,941 | 2,732 | 2,157 | 9,461 | 17,291 |
2014 | 8,179 | 9,565 | 8,206 | 8,889 | 34,839 |
2015 | 8,517 | 9,790 | 8,091 | 6,931 | 33,329 |
2016 | 6,370 | 8,298 | 8,051 | 7,276 | 29,995 |
2017 | 5,804 | 7,903 | 5,184 | 6,188 | 25,079 |
2018 | 4,457 | 5,785 | 0 | 0 | 10,242 |