Auto Company Hall Of Shame Adds New Members
Originally published on TeslaMondo.
The latest MPG masseuse is Mitsubishi. It admits it fudged fuel economy numbers on some cars. So here’s a quick cheat sheet:
Hyundai/Kia lied to us, paid the speeding ticket, drove away like nothing happened.
Ford lied to us, paid the speeding ticket, drove away like nothing happened.
Audi/VW lied to us, will pay the speeding ticket, drive away like nothing happened.
Mitsubishi lied to us, will pay the speeding ticket, drive away like nothing happened. This is the second time in recent years the company trampled the truth. The first time involved hiding defects in company locker rooms. Remember that scandal? Probably not. You see? Automakers survive and move on. They assume, correctly, that we expect scumminess in the auto business.
What do each of these oopsies have in common? Failure to admit failure. Specifically, failure in engineering.
More failure brewing today: BMWs i-team leaders have jumped ship amid falling sales figures. Yes, the core team responsible for the i3 and i8 has turned its back on mother Germany and joined a Chinese EV effort instead. This underlines Germany’s failure to compete in recent years with you-know-whom.
Here’s some irony:
TeslaMondo has been emailing BMW, Audi, Land Rover, Mercedes and Jaguar dealerships under the guise of a potential customer. The email reads like this: “My lease is up next month. Leaning toward Tesla this time. Talk me out of it!” This could have made an interesting blog post, yes?
Unfortunately, almost everyone chickened out. Of the 30 emails sent, 29 salesmen dodged the challenge, instead asking for a face-to-face meeting or phone call to discuss. Only one salesman actually stepped up to the plate and swung the bat. Here’s his email:
TeslaMondo congratulates him for at least trying. In fact, he’s trying harder than all of Germany.
Reprinted with permission.
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I hate to keep saying it but the truth is sometimes hard to take. Outside of Cleantechnica and websites of its like the outside world (including salespeople) don’t care one bit about EV’s, YET! I wholeheartedly agree that change appears to be coming but it is going to be slow!
For now the options are very limited and contain significant compromises, hopefully the Model 3 will change that along with whatever, if any, competition it receives but even then we are set for years of low production compared to worldwide auto sales… Tesla is doing a magnificent job of changing that perception but it is slow to take hold…
Depends where you are. Norway is doing a great job, and UK sales are gathering speed.
America has a long way to go, however.
Here is an excellent piece with UK stats up to April 2016. EV’s are up to ~ 1.5% of total sales – http://www.nextgreencar.com/electric-cars/statistics/
I’ve popped up a graph as well.
I think that the public perception of EVs are closely associated with the public perceptions of their initial adopters; I.e.: ‘Hippies’ and ‘holier-than-thou’, sanctimonious, self-important crusaders…
Which is, unfortunately, how I saw EV drivers until Tesla came along and blew me away.
I liken the problem to the time before adoption of wrist watches. They were seen as unnecessary (and are again, to many younger people nowadays) and clunky; but as soon as all the sexy celebrities started wearing them, everybody wanted one!
We can’t go around spouting logic, scientific theory/fact, or common-sense to those who are inherently against changing the status-quo. As ‘they’ say, ‘You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink’…
We can’t ‘make’ the sceptics buy EVs without resistance (would have loved to put an Ohm symbol here for physics punnery) of some form of another – we have to make the ‘water’ as desirable as possible.
Tesla is doing the best job here, by making EVs ‘sexy’ and desirable. People see George Clooney, DiCaprio, Shakira (<3), etc. in their Teslas and they want one!
EVs need to be promoted as a desirable item, much like the iPhone, or a Gucci handbag.
From my perspective, that's the quickest way to have them adopted by the general public.
(P.s.: Sorry for the incoherent rant, it's 4:32am here and I'm too childish and starved of attention to simply ignore posting my opinions on this when mentally drained by a long-haul flight!)
No doubt Tesla is doing wonders to dispel the negatives around EV’s but we still have a very long way to go and supplying that many EV’s is going to be a massive challenge after the already difficult challenge of changing public perception.
With 400,000 people putting down a deposit for the Tesla it would seem that you are underestimating the care one finds in the outside world.
And there are a heck of a lot of us who are interested but didn’t put down a deposit (for various reasons).
Slow is relative. How fast did cars replace horses? What is your criteria of slow/fast when it comes to a very major shift in personal transportation?
Cars are big purchases, the second most expensive thing most people buy. The most for those who don’t own a house. Few people have the resources to simply dump their perfectly good ICEV and grab an EV. First we have to get more affordable EVs in showrooms and then attrit out ICEVs.
Most ICEVs off the roads by 2035 would be fast to me….
The difference we seem to have is you view 400,000 as a lot and sure, it is, as EV sales/deposits. Let’s not forget that is worldwide deposits. Random Google search states 90million vehicle sales last year so Model 3 deposits are not even half a % or 0.004… and they still have to deliver… so no, I don’t think that is fast. The only other “serious” manufacturer and I use that term loosely is GM with their Bolt. I expect them to sell less than Tesla…
You should know I am an avid EV supporter… just getting a little tired of the unrealistic predictions I guess… not to say that optimism is the wrong approach, after all we need some serious educating of the general public, I guess I just prefer to be realistic in my expectations…
Is it that you are more realistic or is it that you are frustrated with what the timeline is likely to be?
I set the ~100% EV sales threshold to be as late as 2035 and the (almost) last ICEVs off the road about 2050. And as early as 2030 for sales with a 2045 end to gasmobiles.
I haven’t seen anyone predict a market switch to EVs any faster once they’ve had the issue of battery manufacturing capacity explained.
Hundreds of millions of us, possibly billions of us would like it to happen sooner. There are millions who know little or nothing about EVs but are concerned about climate change and realize that cars are a major contributor. But there are physical limits to how quickly we can change what we build.
I think your timeline of 2035 is more realistic. Recently some people here have been touting timelines as early as 2025 for 100% EV’s or statements as ludicrous as once the Model 3 is out BMW and the like are finished… they are the ones I try to dose with reality but they seem immune 🙂
I haven’t seen anyone continue to hold with a 2025 threshold once it’s been explained that we will need approximately 180 Gigafactories before we can manufacture 90 million cars per year.
You have both neglected one important reason for the slow adoption of EVS. The lack of a robust used EV market. Many greedy car manufacturers have a history of crushing their EVS at the end of their lease rather than placing them in the used car market to compete with new car sales.
I don’t think Tesla is having any problems selling their used Mod Ss.
As soon as people understand how much less it costs to operate EVs look for used EVs to hold their value better than used ICEVs.
I am also an EV fan and supporter, but I can’t afford a four wheeler EV, but in my two promising products are being launched this year and both are two wheeler EVs.
First one from a company called ather energy, they have developed fast charging E-scooter.
Second one, Tork Motorcycles. Not a Zero or Brammo competitor, but surely good for INDIA.
Is trolling via email by Tesla fans is considered funny? Trolling is bad, try to avoid it.
How could you leave out GMs historically massive recall and coverup?
I know, I know. We expect slime and we get it. It wasn’t just lying and a recall, it was suborning perjury for its employees by coaching them how to lie.
The 69 words GM employees were not to say.
Its not a defect, its a feature.
Not like VW, who did it the old fashioned way. Just a coverup.