On 18 Jun 2020 at 11:45, Lee Hart via EV wrote: > Perhaps the problem is that the auto companies don't sell to end-users > -- they sell to *dealers*. So the dealers dictate the features; what > they want to sell; what gives them the highest profit margin.
I think that's a large part of it. It's compounded by the fact that decades ago the automakers decided to heavily promote truck-like vehicles, to evade fuel efficiency regulations. To make that strategy even more profitable, they've hardly changed the basic design of pickup trucks since they introduced independent front suspension in the mid 1960s. Most of their development costs for them are fully amortized. Despite a few high profile EV ads (usually posted on Youtube), from what I can tell the automakers don't advertise anything in the US but big trucks, SUVs, and "crossovers" (tall, bloated station wagons). So guess what they sell. No other nation I've visited has anything close to the US's concentration of huge, non-functional pickup trucks on its roads. Other countries used to be predominantly small cars, but that's changed. In the last decade or so the automakers have been fabulously successful in changing other countries' vehicle mix by - surprise! - heavily advertising their SUVs and "crossovers." These less efficient vehicles are causing real consternation in EU government offices as they try to achieve their CO2 reduction targets. That's one reason that the EU as a whole, and its individual states that still have somewhat forward looking leaders, are pushing hard for EVs. For example, France has just raised its direct EV incentive from 6000 to 7000 euros. That's hard cash, folks, not a tax credit. They also subsidize installation of EVSEs. The automakers demanded subsidies on ICEVs too because of lost sales during the viral lockdowns, but France said "non, véhicules électriques seulement." Can you imagine that happening in the US? Aside from EVs, small, simple passenger cars are the least profitable vehicles worldwide. The labor required to build them is roughly the same, but customers perceive large size and luxury as having high value. Therefore big, luxurious vehicles can be priced higher than the actual additional manufacturing cost. I suspect, but don't know for sure, that next least profitable are utility vehicles. They sell in small numbers, but again have fewer high-margin luxury options and still require about the same amount of labor to assemble. The fact that some customers PREFER low cost small vehicles and utility vehicles is immaterial. The automakers and dealers don't like to sell them, so that's just too bad. Despite all the current optimism, I expect that in the long run, affordable US EVs will also tumble into the "not profitable enough" bin. I sure hope that Tesla survives, and comes up with something more affordable and smaller than the Model 3. David Roden - Akron, Ohio, USA EVDL Administrator = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = EVDL Information: http://www.evdl.org/help/ = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Note: mail sent to "evpost" and "etpost" addresses will not reach me. To send a private message, please obtain my email address from the webpage http://www.evdl.org/help/ . = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub ARCHIVE: http://www.evdl.org/archive/index.html INFO: http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org Please discuss EV drag racing at NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
