Electric Car Sales

[nissangirl74]

...are much lower than manufacturers expected. This isn't a surprise to most of us in the enthusiast community. We've predicted this since Day 1. We said that the car companies were over-optimistic about demand. Well, the writing is on the wall and the companies have been forced to look at it for what it is. They have lots of supply but not much demand. In order to move their inventory, manufacturers have been giving steep discounts, including Ford who reduced the price of the electric Focus $4,000. However, the car still costs $35,995. IMO, that is an astronomical amount of money to pay for a small car which such huge limitations.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/car ... f/2506693/

Let's do a little simple math. For all you Math gurus and financial geniuses, give me a little leeway here. I'm not compounding or depreciating anything or talking about incentives. Just some basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division of sticker numbers, K?

Base price of a Ford Focus electric is $35,995

Base price of a Nissan Altima 2.5 w/ CVT is $21,760

Difference is $14,235.00

At $3.50/gallon (avg cost/gallon in AZ right now), that $14,235 would buy 4,067 gallons of fuel.
At a combined 33 mpg, the Alti can travel 594 miles between fill-ups. That 4,067 gallons of fuel could power the Alti 134,211 miles, or more.

If you had the cash in hand, would you really be tempted to go buy the Focus just because it is the "green" thing to do? I know I wouldn't. Especially knowing that at 100,000 miles the Altima won't be facing near the maintenance costs as that electric car will. What do you do? Go buy a new car every 100,000 miles just so you can be a slave to the dealership? You know you don't want to have to pay out of pocket to replace that battery.

So, are any of you any closer to purchasing an electric car than you were two years ago? what would it take to make you buy one, or would you ever?

[Bubba1]

...
So, are any of you any closer to purchasing an electric car than you were two years ago? what would it take to make you buy one, or would you ever?

1. No, no closer
2. Much lower price, better batteries (longer range), cheaper battery replacement costs, an actual charging infrastructure, and perhaps a morally casual supermodel to spend lotsa effort trying to convince me.
3. I wouldn't say I'd never consider one, just not the current generation. like the Leaf.

[krash]

1. No closer to buying one.
2. They're not doing it right. Most of the "affordable" full electrics look like crap, and they've had to sacrifice quite a bit of comfort in order to keep the price low. The Tesla sedan is sweet. Looks good, comfortable, and pretty quick. BUT, 90k could get me a lot of other things. The battery technology is just not to a point where its cheap enough yet, and like you said, when the battery goes out, that is going to suck. So I'll just keep buying fun cars that eat dead dinosaurs.

[PapaSmurf2k3]

1. Yes, because Tesla. No, because I wouldn't drop that type of coin, but if I got a sweet deal on one, I might go for it. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend one. 90 second battery swap solves the fill up problem, along with the batteries that don't last problem.
2. Tesla pretty much needs to just make more cars (and cheaper). I wouldn't consider an EV from any other manufacturer.

[IBCoupe]

1. Yes, because Tesla. No, because I wouldn't drop that type of coin, but if I got a sweet deal on one, I might go for it. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend one. 90 second battery swap solves the fill up problem, along with the batteries that don't last problem.
2. Tesla pretty much needs to just make more cars (and cheaper). I wouldn't consider an EV from any other manufacturer.

This.

[Jesda]

Electric cars are 200% incompatible with the way I use automobiles -- to see the land and travel long distances. In ten years I expect them to be mainstream for most commuters, enough where the price premium might be 10 grand or less.

[PapaSmurf2k3]

http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a ... z2Z6mLXrQt

[krash]

Wouldn't it be "Leaves"?

[szh]

So, are any of you any closer to purchasing an electric car than you were two years ago? what would it take to make you buy one, or would you ever?

Much closer yes. Because of the Tesla S ... many of them on the road here in the S. F. Bay Area, and it appears to be a hit - at least locally.

I would still wait a few more years before getting one, but it is very, very high on the list if I decide to replace my M45 any time soon. Particularly given the recent Infiniti model name changes.

Z