US electric car sales slow to a trickle
Not that long ago, electric vehicle (EV) sales and prospects were up, up, up. Now, though, things are not so hot. The latest bit of bad news can be found in DailyTech, which details a drop in American EV sales across the board. Dealerships clammed up when DailyTech called, and when DT did get an answer, they found a dealer that sold two EVs in three months and another that sells one or two a month. Not exactly inspiring numbers, but not exactly surprising, either. It's hard enough to get people to buy "normal" vehicles these days; asking them to make the jump to a technology they're unfamiliar with - and to companies they have probably never heard of if they're not AutoblogGreen regulars - is apparently too much to expect. Throw in the cliff dive of gas prices since the summer and you've got an easy-to-understand reason for the drop. Have you got a solution?
[Source: DailyTech]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Snoopy 11:48AM (12/05/2008)
I'd have suggested giving the proposed bailout money to the somewhat established EV and PHEV (Parallel and Series Hybrid included) manufacturers to give them a boost in brand recognition. Not only would the money help them in advertising, the sheer fact that an announcement would be made that the money was going to them would begin to pique people's interest.
It might also show people that there are governments on this side of the "pond" that are serious about these new technologies.
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Rich 11:57AM (12/05/2008)
Yes, I agress. Give some money to the companies that are already in the EV business.
I'd buy a pure EV today if I could. But it's got to be a practical 4 door family car with at least 100 mile range.
Richard 12:23PM (12/05/2008)
I agree, 100 mile range, highway speed capable, and it must not look like it was designed at Disney studios.
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Snoopy 12:38PM (12/05/2008)
The look is not a major factor to me. The features (safety, gas mileage, etc.) are important in my case. I was planning to get a VentureOne before they decided to go with the Parallel Hybrid style. I'd go with an Aptera in a heartbeat if they were available in Canada.
Definitely have to go with Paul on number 5. We've got snow tires on our Odyssey and it's as good as non-winter driving (not that I don't drive more cautiously during the winter). As far as economically/ecologically friendly driving goes in the Odyssey, I use D3 unless I'm on the highway and try to keep it in ECO mode all the time (it's one of the models that shuts off cylinders it doesn't need).
Still waiting for full fledged EV/PHEV cars here in Canada.
paulwesterberg 12:23PM (12/05/2008)
I was in the marked for a car last month and ended up getting a prius. I would have rather bought an electric vehicle, but there isnt anything on the market that will meet my needs:
1. Affordable - not tesla.
2. In Production - not aptera
3. Highway Speed, not zap, not zenn
4. Seats 4 with fold down seats to accommodate gear.
5. As safe as traditional cars in winter conditions(snow/ice).
Nobody is buying normal cars either because:
- Most new cars still get pretty shitty gas mileage.
- Nobody wants to shell out a ton of cash for an ICE car because once the volt and others are released it will instantly make your expensive investment totally outdated.
Im hoping that the hymotion battery upgrade $10K for the prius comes down in price.
The Michelin Active Wheel System would be a great platform for making 4wd cars that handled great in the snow. Put the batteries in the floor in the middle of the car and it would be extremely stable. Add height adjusting air shocks and the vehicle could have decent off road capability while providing good mileage on the freeway.
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Red 1:24PM (12/05/2008)
I advise staying tuned to the Chicago Auto Show this coming February. You might find something that suits your criteria...
McHoffa 12:59PM (12/05/2008)
Here we go again, watch new technology come screaming to a halt because gas went cheap again for a while. I think if the govt wants to give money to companies, it should definitely be these types that are moving forward instead of rewarding the ones that can't run a business. The CEOs showed their true colors by flying in on personal jets. Driving in their hybrids the second time around is just for show, and most of us know that. Give some money to Tesla, they have shown that they are in this for real. They have shipped some awesome cars. Give them a jump start to get the family sedan off the ground and maybe in another 5 years we can have an affordable Tesla car, something along the lines of a Civic/Corolla/Focus/Jetta for under 30K, and it would probably look damn good too. I don't like the govt giving money they don't have away at all, but if they are going to do it, they should listen to the people and also be fair about it.
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jeffzekas 2:54PM (12/05/2008)
How to solve the problem? Put a federal $2 per gallon gas tax (commercial truckers and farm vehicles exempt) and then loan the money to electric vehicle manufacturers, as well as including light rail trains and alternative powered vehicles. As a side note: my wife wanted to take the train to San Diego... virtually impossible, with the limited schedules and long layovers... nothing like the public transit systems in the UK and France (maybe we should hire the Europeans to design our new bullet train system!).
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Dave 1:38PM (12/09/2008)
You have - the Spanish got the gig.
Yanquetino 3:03PM (12/05/2008)
Wha...? U.S. electric car sales? Don't you mean more specifically U.S. *LSV* sales (like the Zap you picture)?
In the first place, what electric cars ARE for sale in this country?
The Tesla? Have those sales "slowed to a trickle"? I thought that they had more reservations than they can readily fulfill.
AC Propulsion? I'll bet they are also overextended, not only with eBox orders, but with providing the drivetrains for the MINI E.
Aptera? I thought Steve Fambro said that they how have 4,000 reservations piled up.
Yes, I'm sure that general interest in EVs isn't as great as six months ago, given the current dip in gasoline prices, but let's be accurate with these headlines. It is not as if there are hordes of Teslas, eBoxes, Apteras, i-MiEVs, or MINI Es sitting idle on dealers' lots, with no takers. That's like GM claiming there was "no demand" for the EV1, when in reality... there was "no supply"!
Believe me: if there were true EVs in the showrooms of the major car dealers... they would be selling!
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Ken Muir 5:18PM (12/05/2008)
Slow sales of what? 3 wheel neighborhood EV's? That is the one thing that has driven me crazy over the years with the EV business. Who in their right mind would want something that looked like a toaster on wheels? Smart Car? That thing looks like a personal coffin to me, especially when I think of it getting hit by any standard sedan on the road, let alone a huge truck, SUV or Humvee. The technology is here now to do full size, freeway capable, all electric vehicles with power. Let's stop screwing around and get that done. Several companies are right there and in the next 12 to 18 months we will see real movement. Tesla, Miles Automotive and Phoenix Motorcars to name a few. These are all "real cars", that are safe and feature packed. The one I prefer is the Phoenix SUT.
My wife and I test drove one of these trucks in November 2007. That's all it took. Great ride, tremendous power, 0 - 70 in 7 seconds by my rough count. It’s got 268 hp and 590 ft lbs of torque! We ordered one on the spot. The glider was delivered in June. It's beautiful blue! I’ve got the pictures of it sitting amongst all the white ones on the back lot of Phoenix Motorcars in Ontario California. We should be taking delivery in early '09. The wait has been difficult as I'm not known for my patience.
Leaving a better planet for my kids and grandkids has been the focus though, and once we have it, the wait will have been well worth it. I commute 71 miles each way to work so between gas and bridge tolls we will be saving 300.00 to 700.00 and month, (depending on gas prices at the time). Gas price is irrelevant to me. Driving an EV will save money regardless of the price of gas, and overall, gas always goes up. When I was a kid in the early 60's I remember my Dad complaining about 19.9 cent gas, (20 cents a gallon!). The public gets lulled to sleep with the ups and downs of the price of gas and rarely looks at the long term, real picture. I know people are not stupid. Why do they seem so incapable of seeing the damage we have done to ourselves economically, environmentally and now in terms of National security? Have our brains been turned to mush by the non-stop oil company commercials? Or is it the cute little cartoon Chevron cars? Good Lord, I wish I knew. Our Nation needs to be free from oil, foreign and domestic. In 2008 the amount of money we send to Saudi Arabia for oil will have exceeded what we spend on defense, which means we are funding both sides of the war on terror. Nice of us isn't it? It's what I call unpatriotic and best, and self destructive at worst.
The future is here now! It's expensive right now, but so worth it. Hopefully "first adopters" like us can eventually make this technology cheaper for the masses as quantities go up. Believe me, we are not made of money. We had to take out a loan on our small home in San Jose to get the money to do this. We looked at each other while sitting in the Phoenix Truck and said, what are we going to do to really make a difference in the world? Is it a sacrifice? You bet it is. After we made the decision we talked about how alive we feel. No more just going along with the masses. Let’s be changers of minds. That is the hardest thing. With all the facts in front of us people seem so closed to new ideas. That’s why I’m on this blog with like minded people. Now I have to figure out how to preach to those outside the choir so SUV and big truck drivers can finally start to see the light before it’s too late.
In the meantime, if we're going to commit taxpayer dollars to auto companies why don't we commit to companies like Phoenix Motorcars instead of tired old companies that have fought tooth and nail against this technology / GM / Who Killed the Electric Car. And these people have the nerve to show up in Washington with their hands out. They may as well have guns to the heads of the American public and all the poor working class people who work for them. To hell with that! We have got to change things and the only way to do that is commit ourselves to not buy their century old technology and go out and lay it on the line for these new companies.
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ray 2:23AM (12/06/2008)
Good Job Ken.
Way to take the plunge. I have a car comming that will cost a little less than 42,000 dollars. It is an electric yaris. It has all the features of a regular yaris exept no ICE components. Yours sounds like a better value than mine. I didn't know that the Pheonix was comming out so soon. My car may become opsolet in the next few years but I will have fun with it anyway. Much more efficient way to propell your self down the road. Many less moving parts and an engine that can go a million miles with out an oil change. Best of all when driving it you are not funding the war from both sides. Mine should be here by Christmas. Happy Electroning or Motoring!
jake 6:56PM (12/05/2008)
This is the same as for the EVs that are seeing slower sales in Britain. The problem is now that gas prices have fallen dramatically back down, people are once again realizing a lot of these NEVs aren't particularly good cars. First they aren't very safe, they are slow, and not very practical.
Also with all these announcements of vastly better EVs/PHEVs on the horizon in 2010-2011, I'm sure a lot of potential EV buyers would make the choice of holding back for 2-3 years to wait for a better car.
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Throwback 7:37PM (12/05/2008)
Some of these comments are amusing. Suggesting we impose a gas tax just for the benefit of EVs is laughable. At least the big 3 employ thousands of people.
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rob 9:19PM (12/05/2008)
Electric CAR deliveries are way, way up. Tesla is delivering what, 10 a week now?
NEV's aren't cars. They're golf carts with roofs and doors.
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Fritz 1:26PM (12/06/2008)
The truth is right now full size electric cars do not make economic sense, not even close and the models from the big three are still a year or two away in any volume
What works now is electric bikes and scooters, and use gas, gas hybrids, and high efficiency diesel in new vehicles in a changed mix.
Most neighborhood trips are less than 20 miles roundtrip, and with some stowage capability, they actually are a fun complement. The mix can get a mpg rating of 150 mpg easy, and it requires no great breakthroughs, Throw in some rock star parking for multiple units, some public recharge locations in convenient spots, and better bike lane delineation and you are off to the races. All these simple steps require no breakthroughs, and they have great precedent in Europe and Asia already.
Communities like Portland, San Francisco, Austin, and a few other will simply do this and we can all copy their model, same in Europe for Paris, Amsterdam, and Stuttgart.
So we can spend a fortune doing something that really isn't ready economically or we can just do what is simple and doable now with a much faster implementation and lower cost.
Volkswagen has new models that are expected to get 80 mpg plus in high efficiency diesel, other manufacturers will meet that. Then there is the new three wheel hybrid category coming out of Europe and Asia with weather protection and additional stability.
Mayors should take things into their own hands, they have all the touch points of a complete ecosystem within their domain if they work with a utility. Parking, Recharge Stations, favorable regulations, bike lane delineation. Throw in a modest national incentive like a credit proportional to what the car companies want for electric cars and you have a system that could be rolled out to every high school and college campus.
You can't will electric cars to be economic and hit the performance parameters in this economy with battery pricing as it is. You can implement the other option today and then be prepared when it is time for the fully electric auto.
The question needs to be changed to, what can we do very well now that will make a huge difference, and the answers are clear on that right now.
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steve 7:12AM (12/08/2008)
We gave up on the idea of an electric car. The current designs that are affordable are tiny, have terrible performance and have fit and finish that reminds you of junkers from decades ago. I am very skeptical of the safety of some of the vehicles.
somehow the first try didn't work
Our approach has been to do what we can do now. We only have one car now. We combine errands and commuting and have bikes, including one that can carry serious amounts of cargo, for shorter trips.
We live in NJ and the weather isn't always the best, but almost all of our food shopping and local trips (less than 10 miles) use human power. We're down from well over 15000 car miles per year to something like 5000 to 6000.
Of course it would be wonderful to have something that is more efficient, but conservation is very easy and is cheap. The total for the bikes was less than $2k and only having to worry about the money drain of one car quickly covered that expense.
Eventually electrics and PHEVs will get there, but much can be done immediately if you want.
Now if we could only get a nation program for building separate bikeways.
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gasaholic 2:26AM (12/12/2008)
Pistons Forever And The More, The Better. EV's suck.
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Dave 1:44PM (12/09/2008)
And Tesla *will* employ 1000s of people.
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