Electric Vehicles

[CUD]

After years of buzz some EV's are starting to hit the market. Personally, I just don't get it. (Maybe I'm just too darn old and stuck in my ways)

If I have a pure EV and get stuck in a traffic jam or, want to run the AC or heat, I run the risk of running out of juice and being stuck. Also, spend a great deal of money and own a car you really can't take more than 50 miles from home unless you have someplace to plug it in.

Or, you can get a car like the Volt that has a range extender. But paying high 30's for a car the size of the upcoming Cruze just doesn't make sense to me. The cost differential is a whole lot of gas.

How do others feel? If you are a Nissan or Mini dealer do you have people looking to buy an EV?

[XDCX]

I was just watching a segment on CNBC and thought of this thread. They indicated that Tesla's stock has now dropped 50% from its high and is now 30% below the offering price.

While I'm not an expert, my bet is the internal combustion engine will eventually be replaced by electric vehicles but it will be a long/slow process. The speed at which it happens will depend on the cost of gasoline and advances in battery technology.

I agree with your assessment that currently the cost/benefit ratio for an electric vehicle doesn't make sense for most people. That said, I like what GM's done with their Volt and what Nissan's done with their Leaf and I hope they're successful.

[XDCX]

I ran across an interesting article CNN/Money did concerning the Chevrolet Volt and the Nissan Leaf. Here's the link - click here

GM is only planning to build 10,000 Volts next year and Nissan is taking deposits on up to 25,000 Leafs - those are pretty small numbers in the big picture.

I guess both GM and Nissan want to test the waters before they ramp up production - I can't say that I blame them. Who knows what the true demand will be once the initial novelty wears off?

[XDCX]

CNBC's Phil Lebeau had a couple of segments this morning that featured the Nissan Leaf. Phil had a chance to test drive the vehicle for two hours yesterday and had mostly positive comments.

The Leaf will be available in December and should sell for about $24K after all the applicable tax incentives. (The MSRP is about $32K before tax incentives.)

For those who may not be aware, the Nissan Leaf is 100% electric and is supposed to have a range of about 100 miles between charges.

[XDCX]

Here's a link to the review Phil Lebeau did after he tested the Nissan Leaf for a couple of hours - click here

I thought it was interesting that Nissan's collected $99 from over 16,000 people who want to be on the Leaf waiting list. I'm sure all 16,000 won't end up buying a car but it's an interesting tactic to screen-out the people who would typically sign up for a waiting list when they had no intention of buying a new car.