Talking about cars in general and electric cars in particular, you are bound to get around to the subject of the launch from 0–60 mph acceleration every now and then. And frankly, it doesn’t really make sense in daily life, does it? The recent hype about the new Tesla Roadster proves the point. I mean, 0–60 in 1.9 seconds? Really? You would need a medical clearance for doing that. I get blurry vision below 4 seconds, so what’s the point?
The rise and rise of the Chinese plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) market is unstoppable, with yet another record performance in November — 84,000 new passenger PEVs registered last month. That’s almost double last year’s total for November. That 84,000 also put the year to date (YTD) count over 490,000, up 60% year over year (YoY).
A lot has changed since I first compiled a list of the 11 electric cars with the most range. Most of those cars no longer make the list. Furthermore, there are a handful of affordable electric cars that have jumped into the high-range bracket. Have a look below (and compare to that 2015 list) for more details.
There are some significant differences with regard to the plug-in electric vehicles that sell the best in Europe and those that sell the best in the USA. While differences with regard to range needs and costs are part of the drivers for these differences (note that the average European drives approximately half as much as the average American over the course of a year), they are by no means the only ones. Questions of national bias, government incentives, and public image all come into play as well, amongst others.
Those sounds you heard a few days ago were a collective sigh of relief from many automakers and electric vehicle advocates when the US Congress passed new tax legislation that also kept the federal electric vehicle tax credit intact — a tax credit of up to $7,500 for any US taxpayers who buy a new electric vehicle*.
Reuters is reporting that 90% of Tesla automobiles need repairs after they come off the assembly line, with up to 2,000 parked outside awaiting attention. That’s according to 9 former employees who worked at the Tesla assembly plant in Fremont, California. Sour grapes? Possibly. Notably, 2 of the 9 were part of a group of 400 workers fired recently by the company, so they may have an ax to grind against their former employer. Still, the reports are cause for concern.
The annual Consumer Reports Owner Satisfaction survey is out and Tesla tops the list for the second time in as many years followed closely by Porsche and Genesis.
I’ve been an advocate for EVs since restoring a 1994 USElecticar Chevy S-10 in 2009. I’ll admit my time horizon for wide adoption of EVs at that time was decades out. Little did I realize that two players would appear Nissan with the Leaf in 2011 and Tesla with the Model S in 2012. Hindsight provides the opportunity to see this as a one-two punch to the traditional auto business. Nissan targets the average car buyer in a traditional manufacturer/dealer environment. Tesla takes aim at the high-end luxury segment in a nontraditional manufacturer direct to consumer format.
For decades, electric cars have been a dream of the future. Magazines showed show cars and experiments, but fielded few or no production examples. During periods of high oil prices, their prospects rose, but as oil prices declined, they faded. Tinkerers and DIY mechanics made home-built lead-acid gas car conversions. There were tantalizing forays stimulated by California’s CARB ZEV (zero emission vehicle) mandates, like the GM EV1, Toyota RAV4 EV, and Honda EV Plus, but they were in limited numbers and more often offered for lease but not for sale.
The big electric car sales story again in November was that Chevy Bolt sales rose again, and took the #1 spot again.
The next tier was Tesla’s showroom — the Model S and Model X — based on my estimates for the month*.
