It seems to me that far too often there are journalistic hit jobs on the electric vehicle popping up in my news feed. I just don’t get it. I see the words “fail”, “disappointing”, “weak”, “death” when it comes to the sales of Pure Electric (PEV) and Plug-in Hybrid (PHV). Of course, with the start of any new industry, technology, or product there are pumps in the road. I love my iPhone, iPad, MacBook, etc, but that first generation iPhone was not worth the $500 or more dollars they were charging for a slow gadget with hardly any memory.
Yet here we go again with another attack on the electric vehicle industry from the New York Daily News with more words like “struggling” and “weakness” thrown out there like objective facts, not the subjective silly putty that it is. Below I have the article, with my point by point fact based rebuttal.
From the New York Daily News Article:
Struggling sales of cars like the Chevrolet Volt, Nissan Leaf show weakness in electric vehicle market
Despite fluctuating fuel prices and widespread media hype, automakers haven't wooed car buyers. Charging time, short range, and high overall prices continue to plague electric vehicle sales.
The Chevrolet Volt, a plug-in hybrid with the ability to run on its electric engine alone, is by far the most successful electric car in the United States.
The fledgling electric car business is in turmoil as predictions about potential sales have proven to be wildly optimistic despite volatile fuel prices and plenty of media hype.
Weak consumer demand is hitting both the big automakers like General Motors and Nissan -- which have failed to meet sales targets on the plug-in Volt and all-electric Leaf -- and smaller start-up firms trying to carve out a piece of a very small niche.
"Electric vehicles don't make any more sense today than they did in 1912," says Sean McAlinden, an analyst with the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The only difference here, Sean, is that we’ve advanced the technology by about 100 years. Batteries are powering more of our lives, including our phones, computers, and heart pumps. So why can’t they power our cars? Car design has changed, including the understanding of aerodynamic drag (.25 being the target or better) to improve range. We also have electricity in EVERY house hold, as opposed to the 1912 numbers when most of America was rural farmland, not city based metropolises of today. I won’t even get started on the basic advancement in the chemistry of the batteries in 100 years, I’m just flabbergasted that you even said this.
"They take too long to charge, the range is too short and they cost too much." The assumption that these cars cost “too much” is my least favorite argument. NO ONE pays full price up front for a car. They take out loans or a lease on a car and pay month by month. Here, there is automatic pay off every month with gas savings, a pay off that is shaving off of an increased monthly car payment. Look at California where gas prices are $4.67 a gallon. Pay-off gets better and better, where electricity prices are basically flat. Range and anxiety questions are automatically squashed when people look at the PHV like the Prius Plug-in and the Volt. And have you NEVER seen someone push their gas-emptied car to a gas station? Really?
Electric cars also face stiff competition from hybrids and improved fuel efficiency in conventional vehicles as automakers update their fleet to meet tougher government standards. Competition is good, makes both hybrids and fuel efficient vehicles strive for improvement.
Toyota recently announced plans to drastically scale back the release of its all-electric eQ and Honda has limited the release of its Fit EV to 1,100 US customers over the next two years. This while Toyota sales record numbers of their new Prius line, including the plug-in, and Honda is releasing a similar accord.
The Chevy Volt -- which can switch over to a regular gasoline engine once the battery runs out of juice -- is by far the most successful electric car in the United States.
After a slow start, Volt sales have tripled this year with help of discounted leases and a decision by California to allow them in fast-moving carpool lanes on the state's clogged freeways.
But sales of 16,348 through September are still far short of the 45,000 Volts that the US Department of Energy forecast in a 2011 report that GM could sell per year. BUT TRIPLE THE SALES OF LAST YEAR. If GM does that or just double next year, then these targets can be hit or surprassed.
As fuel prices rise, consumers have been far more attracted to Toyota's Prius hybrid, which saw sales double this year to 183,340 vehicles. And where did Prius sales start in 2000? There were only 5,800 first generation Priuses sold in 2000, up to only 15K in 2001, and 20K in 2002. I’m guessing you considered that a failure, even though today it’s the best selling car in California.
Sales of the all-electric Leaf -- which has a maximum range of 73 miles (117 kilometers) -- are down 28 percent to just 5,212 vehicles in the United States this year despite a major marketing push. The marketing push has really just kicked off, and sales in September improved.
Nissan -- which is preparing to open a new assembly for electric vehicles in Tennessee -- is falling well short of CEO Carlos Ghosn's ambitious goal to double Leaf sales for fiscal 2013.
Only two years ago, the Boston Consulting Group predicted electric vehicle sales could reach five percent or roughly 4 million to 5 million vehicles of the industry's total global sales volume by 2020. Now they are saying electric vehicles might represent just three percent of total global sales. Could this be also due to the fact that hybrid are getting a bigger chunk of the sales and fuel efficiency will be mandated here in the US and in other countries? Most importantly, let’s look at the trend for all these Hybrid, PEV, PHV’s out there. Clearly adoption has begun, if not as early or as fast as some would have liked, but happening all the same.
While the big automakers can cushion their massive investments in electric vehicles with sales of conventional cars, the painfully slow growth and the difficulties in adapting electric technology to the tastes of modern motorists have posed huge challenges for startups.
Tesla Motors is falling behind in its efforts to produce a sleek new electric vehicle, the electric vehicle start-up company spawned by Silicon Valley billionaire Elon Musk acknowledged in a recent regulatory filing.
That leaves the Palo Alto, California-based company in danger of failing to meet the terms of a $465 million Energy Department loan. Would a little research hurt the writers at NY Daily News? Tesla Motors is ramping up production, planning on paying its loan back early, and will be cash flow positive before the end of the year. Does anyone doubt that the guy behind Pay-Pal and SpaceX can’t pull off car production too? He just sent another space module the International Space Station!
Nonetheless, electric vehicles advocates remain upbeat and investors are not shying from the companies.
Tesla was able to raise $128 million by selling new shares of common stock and Fisker Automotive also raised $100 million in new capital last month despite problems with the launch of its extended range electric vehicle, the Karma.
Tony Posawatz, Fisker's third chief executive officer since February, acknowledged the company made mistakes but dismissed a crushing review by Consumer Reports, which described the Karma's design as flawed.
"Customers do like these cars," said Posawatz, a former GM executive who had been responsible for bringing the Volt to market.
Fisker has sold more than 1,000 Karmas, which cost $103,000, since the car went on sale last December.
Posawatz also predicted the technology for electric and extended range electric vehicles will catch on.
"It took 10 years, but the Prius is the best-selling vehicle in California," he said at a recent meeting of the Automotive Press Association in Detroit.
The company is moving ahead with plans to build its next vehicle, a sedan dubbed the Atlantic that will costs roughly half as much as the Karma, and expects to raise another $200 million in private equity funding soon.
Meanwhile, Tel Aviv-based Better Place is looking for new direction after replacing founder Shai Agassi with a new chief executive officer.
