http://ecomento.com/2015/09/30/study-global-ev-sales-hampered-by-inept-marketing/ Study claims global EV sales hampered by inept marketing September 30, 2015 |
[image http://cdn.ecomento.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/electric-cars-inept-marketing.jpg (Fiat 500e EV) ] Study claims global EV sales hampered by inept marketing Germany’s Roland Berger Automotive Competence Center studies the automotive marketplace and does a quarterly report on the worldwide sales picture for electric vehicles, including plug-in hybrids. Its E-Mobility Index for the third quarter of 2015 finds that global EV sales suffer from inept marketing and poor advertising. Part of the blame is attributable to political policies in the US. When the California Air Resources Board imposed a requirement on all car makers to sell zero emission cars within the state, car makers complained bitterly and responded by building low quality “compliance cars” – vehicles intended to meet the letter of the law but not the spirit. Most of the cars were insipid, uninspired models that customers disliked. Car dealers acted like they were embarrassed by them and usually parked them out back where no one could see them. Manufacturers spent no money advertising them and neither did the dealers. Salesmen were not trained how to explain the advantages of EVs to customers. As a result, sales were dismal, customer satisfaction was low and the word got out that these were cars to avoid. Perception is reality, they say. Car makers thought of EVs as money losers and so they built them as cheaply as possible. Fiat’s CEO Sergio Macchione actually begged people not to buy the electric Fiat 500e because the company lost so much money on every car. Tesla changed that perception when it started building premium quality electric cars. The cars were expensive – and worth every penny, according to customers. Despite all the buzz about Tesla, the most recent Roland Berger report shows that only in France are electric car sales greater than 1% of the total. The Renault ZOE electric car is not only a pretty good automobile, it is affordable and benefits from positive promotion from Nissan and the French government. In Italy, by contrast, that figure is a paltry 0.16%. The Roland Berger E-Mobility Index also critiques car dealers for doing a poor job of promoting EVs. Selling one usually takes a much longer time than selling a conventional car, because customers need to be educated about the new technology. Because sales people are compensated by the number of cars they sell, they usually have little interest in meeting the needs of EV shoppers. In general, the world’s automakers have been slow to embrace the green car revolution, primarily because profit margins are low and the costs of development are high. Until that perception changes, it will be business as usual in the world of automobiles. [© ecomento.com] For EVLN EV-newswire posts use: http://evdl.org/evln/ {brucedp.150m.com} -- View this message in context: http://electric-vehicle-discussion-list.413529.n4.nabble.com/EVLN-EV-sales-hampered-by-inept-marketing-US-political-policies-tp4677923.html Sent from the Electric Vehicle Discussion List mailing list archive at Nabble.com. _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org Read EVAngel's EV News at http://evdl.org/evln/ Please discuss EV drag racing at NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
