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US Electric Car Sales Report

cleantechnica.com

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Re: US Electric Car Sales Report

#2
The only people I know who have an electric car own or have pre-ordered Teslas. They are all status symbols. I don’t know anyone who needs an electric car. Maybe the problem is just as much lack of demand as it is lack of big auto commitment?

Re: US Electric Car Sales Report

#3

The only people I know who have an electric car own or have pre-ordered Teslas. They are all status symbols. I don’t know anyone who needs an electric car. Maybe the problem is just as much lack of demand as it is lack of big auto commitment?

Where do you live? I see plenty of Volts and Bolts and Leafs where I live.

Re: US Electric Car Sales Report

#4
I have a lovely internal combustion sportscar that Dom Toretto or his wife (were they real) would enjoy driving.

And if anyone can deliver the same performance for $50,000 (or less) I'll transition to electric. GM says 2020, Ford says (I think) 2023. And meanwhile, Teslas are nice, but I hate their interiors with the whole one.big.screen and they cost too much. All IMO of course.

Re: US Electric Car Sales Report

#5
Just a reminder-- there were 1.15M light vehicle sales in the US last month[0].

The total for all of these EV cars put together is a drop in the bucket.. 12000/1.15M = 1%. So if big auto has a problem, they have a lot of time to figure it out.

0. http://www.wsj.com/mdc/public/page/2_3022-autosales.html

Edit: Corrected.. thanks to sremani for pointing out the error.

Re: US Electric Car Sales Report

#6
> large automakers aren’t even trying

Despite the Bolt being MT car of the year in 2017, I found it very hard to get a test drive. Some local Chevy dealers pretended not to know about it, which is ludicrous: their business, and maybe their only value as middleman, is to know every vehicle in the catalog forward and backward and then to leap to get me what I ask for.

When I pointed out they were sitting on MTCOY the response was: don't believe everything you read. Really?

Finally, after about 6 months of trying, I finally got a test drive in January, and the salesman was knowlegeable and was ready to sell one from a local inventory pool. His observation was, while there are still some lifetime unknowns (8 yr/100 kmi warranty on the battery) it probably wouldn't ever need as much maint as an ICE car.

And that might be part of the dealers' problem: the service side of the business is going to take a hit in the long term. In the short term, the ICE assembly lines will need retooling, after giant investments in 100 yo methods.

Re: US Electric Car Sales Report

#7

The only people I know who have an electric car own or have pre-ordered Teslas. They are all status symbols. I don’t know anyone who needs an electric car. Maybe the problem is just as much lack of demand as it is lack of big auto commitment?

Where do you live? I see plenty of Volts and Bolts and Leafs where I live.

I've seen lots of Bolts in Silicon Valley in the past few months, far more than Model 3s in fact. And if you just stuff their seats with memory foam, they're quite comfortable to drive: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dgxWTOnVn8

but I await the Camaro/Mustang/Challenger equivalent electric car at roughly the same price point before I'll switch. The acceleration is just too useful for highway merges and other assorted road nonsense that's increasingly my daily commute experience.

Re: US Electric Car Sales Report

#8

The only people I know who have an electric car own or have pre-ordered Teslas. They are all status symbols. I don’t know anyone who needs an electric car. Maybe the problem is just as much lack of demand as it is lack of big auto commitment?

I came very close to a Bolt for these reasons. My local power generator offered a $75 discount on the charger, plus free charging for the car on weekends. That's enormous: I could charge on weekends and drive 238 miles for free during the week. As a local commute or grocery getter, it's hard to beat free miles.

Re: US Electric Car Sales Report

#9

Just a reminder-- there were 1.15M light vehicle sales in the US last month[0]. The total for all of these EV cars put together is a drop in the bucket.. 12000/1.15M = 1%. So if big auto has a problem, they have a lot of time to figure it out. 0. http://www.wsj.com/mdc/public/page/2_3022-autosales.html Edit: Corrected.. thanks to sremani for pointing out the error.

[deleted]

Re: US Electric Car Sales Report

#10

Just a reminder-- there were 1.15M light vehicle sales in the US last month[0]. The total for all of these EV cars put together is a drop in the bucket.. 12000/1.15M = 1%. So if big auto has a problem, they have a lot of time to figure it out. 0. http://www.wsj.com/mdc/public/page/2_3022-autosales.html Edit: Corrected.. thanks to sremani for pointing out the error.

17 Million is yearly number.
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