Comments on: Growing Pains for Electric Vehicle Manufacturers

By: Zachary Shahan

Zachary Shahan — Fri, 24 Aug 2012 00:56:00 +0000

Wow, that’s not cool to hear. And definitely would be a big issue if this is the case many places.

By: Ule Amra

Ule Amra — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 07:26:00 +0000

OK, so it’s July 2012, and in many parts of the country manufacturers are still not delivering the EVs they supposedly have for sale. I’m still waiting for an i-MiEV after “pre-ordering” in April, while I see hundreds of unsold cars sitting in lots around the country. Meanwhile, Toyota prominently features plug-ins in their “Prius family” ads, but won’t deliver them to dealers in most states, again while some vehicles sit unsold in the lucky few “chosen” markets. We’ve all seen the joke of the Ford Focus Electric’s approach to marketing and distribution. At this stage, the only EVs I see sitting on lots here in New Mexico ready for immediate sale are Chevy Volts. I can’t really tell if all this is just incompetence or serving some subtle purpose, but either way it causes me to doubt that the dismal sales numbers we’re seeing are truly indicative of consumer demand. You can’t sell what you won’t deliver.

By: Bob_Wallace

Bob_Wallace — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 22:47:00 +0000

I wonder about the percentage of US drivers who could use an 100 mile range EV without problem.

Most multiple car households, I would imagine, would be fine if one car was a “100” EV. If more than one person is commuting more than 100 miles per day they probably need to move.

Those people who use their cars only for ‘around town’. That use public transportation for longer trips.

Those people who rarely take a long trip. For them it might be cheaper to rent a gasmobile once in a while if public transportation doesn’t work.

I’m going to guess that half the US cars fall into one of those categories. That might set the upper limit for the “100” EV. Of course most expect that we’ll see higher ranges soon.

Keep your eyes open for an announcement from Renault in early March. Scuttlebutt is that they will announce an affordable 200 mile EV. Renault confirms that they have a big announcement to make but won’t confirm the details.

Renault is all partnered up with Nissan, for those who aren’t aware. They share a CEO and battery tech.

By: Zachary Shahan

Zachary Shahan — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 21:17:00 +0000

Damn, that doesn’t change the picture, doesn’t it?

By: Breath on the Wind

Breath on the Wind — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 04:16:00 +0000

Some of the figures you mentioned were also mentioned in “Revenge of the Electric Car” http://cleantechnica.com/2011/10/23/revenge-of-the-electric-car-the-kings-a-review/ But just imagine if the 20% who said that they would buy an Electric Vehicle with a 100 mile range did so over the next 4 years. Even at today’s volume 20% of 140 million vehicles would give us 28 million electric vehicles on the road by 2015!! I think that most people would consider that a huge success. Obama is only hoping for 1 million by that time.

I would suggest then that there are plenty of people in the 100 mile EV range market and 4 years is a nice bit of time for innovations and improvements.. The question for automakers is who is going to take the lions share of that market. Nissan is a current favorite but the less expensive Mitsubishi I Miev has yet to hit the market in the US in any big way.