This is a thought provoking article about electric cars by a self professed fan of these new alternatives to driving that don’t use gas. He goes through the sales of electric cars and what it means to the market development. What do you think about the potential for electric cars if these sales reports mean cars companies are struggling to get them out on the market?
I like the idea of electric cars. Heck, I’ve driven them, and downright enjoyed doing so. The inner geek within me yearns for a car that makes no noise other than a suppressed electric whine, and that glides down the highway like something out of a futuristic sci-fi movie or Knight Rider.
So let’s just get this out of the way: I do not hate electric cars. In fact I think they are awesomely cool, and are an incredible technical achievement.
That being said, at this stage of their technical development, and given other issues related to the production of electricity in this and in many other countries, I don’t think they are even close to being ready for prime time.
In the last year we’ve seen various aspects of the EV ecosystem self-destruct. GM’s Volt sales have been so awful that the company decided to temporarily suspend production of the car in the spring of last year for over a month and had to issue heavy discounts to move inventory.
To be kind as well as factually correct, GM sold over 23,000 Volts in 2012, which is a triple what it did in 2011, but that isn’t saying an awful lot.
If you compare the total sales of the Volt to date with the vehicle that shares its platform, the top-selling compact car in North America — the Chevy Cruze — it’s so small that it’s practically a rounding error. Approximately 237,000 Cruzes were sold in 2012, and 231,000 in 2011.
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