Nissan LEAF Losing Ground in the Electric Vehicle Space
Here’s an excerpt from this week’s Green Auto Digest, published by my colleague Jon LeSage: Plug-in electric vehicle sales were up substantially month-over-month and year-over-year – 17% over January and 6.7% over February 2014. The Tesla Model S, Chevrolet Volt, and Ford Fusion Energi saw sizable gains over last year, while the Nissan Leaf was down 22.4%……. The 2017 Hyundai Ioniq might have been the most interesting green car news story from last week’s Geneva Motor Show. The hatchback was displayed in all three forms in which it’ll be sold.
Great going, Jon. As I’ve told you, I look forward to your publication each week.
What’s your take on the Nissan LEAF, i.e., on how badly it’s performing in the marketplace? I’ve heard Carlos Ghosn talk a few times, and he sure sounds committed to world-class innovation in the EV space; have he and his team simply done a bad job? Reviews aren’t really that positive; I’m surprised. And the woman pictured here looks so happy…. 🙂
The only person I know of who has a Nissan Leaf is quite happy with it. The range is not a problem since she and her husband have two cars, the other one being a fossil fueled car which can be used when long trips are required. She finds that the standard 120V charger is adequate for her needs. She simply plugs the car in after returning home and by the time she needs it in the morning it is fully charged.
Currently, electric cars, because of limited range, will not meet the needs of all people. However, many people have two cars in which case if one of them is electric, usually their needs will be met.
Frank, what you are describing is a kind of hybrid ownership. Instead of carrying a gasoline engine around all the time when it is not needed in a hybrid vehicle, families with two vehicles can be even more efficient by only using a gas engine vehicle on trips where it will be required. It seems like a great option for many in that situation.
The norm for U.S. families has become to have at least two cars in which case it can make sense for the most used car to be electric. However, if a family needed only one car, it would not make sense to purchase an additional car so one of them could be electric. If they did that, the insurance companies would make out like bandits. There is an insurance discount for a second car, but generally it is no more than 15% even if there is only one driver thereby guaranteeing that only one car will be used at a time.
It may be that more electric cars would be sold if the second car discount were perhaps 75% when there is only one driver. For many people, fuel is not the major cost of car ownership. Sometimes insurance is the major cost even when the driver has a good record.
I think you are right Frank in saying EV ownership is mostly about economics rather than environmental or strategic planning. You make another good point when you point out that, when the cost of a year of fuel for a vehicle goes below the cost of insurance it could be a secondary consideration. However higher maintenance on a petrol vehicle and HOV lanes for the EV may also be a factor for some.
Perhaps with younger people moving away from car ownership and toward tech consumption and social media, there may be a move toward group ownership of vehicles. The success of Zip cars suggests this to some degree. Too bad that they are not available or practical everywhere.
Craig, perhaps Carlos Ghosn is acting like a very careful CEO offering an electric vehicle when the price of gasoline is very low. Although he speaks very agressively about the EV market I get the sense it is from a business position. It may lack some of the enthusiasm of Elon Musk when he advances Tesla. Nissan is also far more diversified than Telsa. Perhaps in this case that dilutes his EV efforts.
Fuel cost is a far bigger factor in Europe where around 75% of fuel cost at the pump is made up of various taxes. In the UK we still pay over $5 per US gallon.
One factor which may be partly responsible for the Leaf losing ground to other electric vehicles is rumours that the battery capacity is due to double when the next model is released – with an indicated range close to 200 miles, this version should be a practical option for many more people than the existing model. (Many would be owners may simply be deferring their purchase until the longer range version hits the market.)
One reason, but not the only reason, that electric cars can often be justified economically is that although the cost of motor fuel includes taxes to build and maintain highways, electricity lacks those taxes. It is likely that if electric cars become a significant percentage of cars sold that ways will be found to tax the power they use to make up for the lost fuel taxes.