Electric car market is badly in need of a charge

[atlaw4u]

Battery companies struggle as consumer demand for clean vehicles continues to wane

David Shepardson - DETROITNEWS - October 18, 2012

The electric vehicle industry is in serious trouble, or at least far behind where its proponents had hoped it would be.

On Tuesday, one of the nation's largest electric car battery companies — A123 Systems Inc., which has 1,000 workers and contractors in Michigan — filed for bankruptcy. It has lost $900 million since 2007 amid sluggish electric vehicles sales.

After years of promises that electric cars would end the nation's reliance on imported oil, the bad news has been steady in recent weeks, with reports of lagging sales and projects being pushed back.

Despite high gas prices, established automakers and start-ups are struggling to convince Americans to buy the cars. In Washington, the political consensus in favor of electric vehicles has evaporated.

Electrics remain far more expensive than gasoline-powered vehicles, despite hefty government tax credits.

Recharging stations remain limited. That's part of the reason why plug-in hybrids, like the Chevrolet Volt, which have an auxiliary gasoline engine, are doing better in the marketplace than battery-electrics...[Read More]

[herm]

Leaf sales have collapsed, and the TN plant is about to crank up.. Nissan needs to drop the price of the car down to $30k before incentives NOW. The Arizona Battery Fiasco is not helping.

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

Well, it'd be nice to sell more.

If Tesla sort out their supplier issues it'll help numbers.

Nissan has the 2013 coming with a price drop on an entry level but I shouldn't be surprised if they're waiting until after the election to be sure.

Toyota needs to sustain their $2k+ incentive and price the PiP better. There's ridiculous pricing on the Prius, somewhere.

The real bright spot is the Volt, which its owners/lessess love. Sales have grown and if October's sales are like September GM's "loss per Volt" should be down to near 40k. And next year they'll be releasing the Cadillac ELR, which should also be successful and return profits quickly.

[TheStepChild]

Idk how hard they are struggling to convince people to buy, after my experience at the Ford dealership. "Oh no, you don't want the hybrid. Too much $ and you won't reach break even point vs regular gas car."

[CRT1]

The Automakers are really going to have to educate and incentive the dealer network so they can move the hybrids, PHEVs and EVs. I'm guessing that the gassers have a higher profit margin, but in coming years they will need to push the higher FE cars in order to make the new CAFE standards.

[wick1ert]

I think it's a combination of the sales people not knowing about the hybrids and so they spew incorrect information to persuade the customer to a non-hybrid vehicle that they feel they can explain away or push you to a higher version easier. Also, any smart commission sales person knows which models make them the most $ and a lot will push you towards that to make more money. As someone that's been in their position before, it's a fine line between selling something that'll fit the needs of the customer and satisfy their wants as opposed to making them think they need something else that will make you more and hope they don't figure it out. Since I was still a youngun at that time, I did my best to fit the customer to their needs/wants without much care over what I was making, bc it was pretty good pay for a teenager then. I think most sales people want to make the quickest and easiest check, so that's what you get them pushing.

[bullwinkle428]

Originally Posted by TheStepChild

Idk how hard they are struggling to convince people to buy, after my experience at the Ford dealership. "Oh no, you don't want the hybrid. Too much $ and you won't reach break even point vs regular gas car."

Wow, I definitely had a different experience at a Ford delaership this past weekend. I saw on their inventory list that they had one C-Max on the lot (only Ford dealership in town out of four that had any). Went over there on Saturday afternoon, and found out that they had sold it the previous day. The salesman said that they can't keep them on the lot at all, so he just took my name and number to let me know the next time they get one in.

If anyone wants to try and dissuade me with the "payback" argument, I'll just point to my odometer which currently registers over 329,000 miles!

[ALS]

Originally Posted by bullwinkle428

If anyone wants to try and dissuade me with the "payback" argument, I'll just point to my odometer which currently registers over 329,000 miles!

I said the same thing when I bought my Prius. Just to start was the $1000 a year in fuel savings over a regular gasoline powered vehicle. Through in the minimal maintenance costs on this car and you can add in another $100-$150 per year in savings over ten years. Throw in the IRS mileage write off and I gain even more over a non hybrid.

[WriConsult]

I think a lot of what's going on is that there was a huge amount of pent-up demand (try 20+ years' worth) for BEVs, and that was probably a big chunk of initial Leaf sales. Those people now have their EVs and are happy. The ongoing market may be much smaller.

Until gas hits 6 bucks a gallon. Let's hope the EV industry doesn't die off before that happens, because it will.

Originally Posted by ALS

Throw in the IRS mileage write off and I gain even more over a non hybrid.

Wow, you do that much work-related driving?

[ALS]

3/4 of all the miles on my Prius are work related.