Thread: The Electric Duds

Dealers can’t seem to give away Nissan leaf electric cars or Chevy Volt series hybrids.

http://green.autoblog.com/2012/02/01...fs-in-january/

Pretty shabby numbers. As a point of reference. Ford dropped the Excursion (despite a hefty per-unit profit) when sales dropped under 15,000 per year.

Whatever their merits, people obviously do not want to spend their money on these cars.

Is that why there are still waiting lists for the Leaf?

Or why the Volt outsells the Corvette? Guess that proves America hates sports cars.

Yeah, it's still too expensive for the average consumer. Give it time. Early adopters always pay a premium. They're both sweet vehicles, but a little too pricey. Couple years, when the price is down and any bugs worked out, I'll probably bite.

The Volt outsells the Corvette?

Do you know how rediculous that sounds.

Originally Posted by Taxcutter

The Volt outsells the Corvette?

Do you know how rediculous that sounds.

Since sales of both the Leaf and the Volt are up year-over-year, this sounds a lot like seasonal variation.

December 2011 Volt sales: 1529
December 2011 Corvette sales: 1038

Originally Posted by Poor Debater

Since sales of both the Leaf and the Volt are up year-over-year, this sounds a lot like seasonal variation.

December 2011 Volt sales: 1529
December 2011 Corvette sales: 1038

comparing that rinky dink volt to a $100,000 sports car is apples and trees.

Dealers have lots of Volts gathering dust on their lots.

They sell every Corvette they can get their hands on.

Here’s another electric dud: Fisker.

http://gas2.org/2012/02/07/its-time-...lug-on-fisker/

The Volt and Leaf languish. Aptera collapsed. Fisker has taken a half-bill of the taxpayers’ money down the tubes.

Electric cars don’t work outside a very narrow niche.

http://green.autoblog.com/2012/02/07...onsumer-repor/

Many of these same problems manifested themselves a century ago as the original electric cars were driven off the market by superior products driven by gasoline engines.

We are coming up on the century mark on the year the last US car company was successfully started from scratch. BTW it was Chevrolet in 1915, started up by Billy Durant (who founded GM).

The car biz is tough. It is no place for enviro-ideologues or taxpayer money.

Originally Posted by Taxcutter

We are coming up on the century mark on the year the last US car company was successfully started from scratch. BTW it was Chevrolet in 1915, started up by Billy Durant (who founded GM).

No, the last US car company was successfully started from scratch would be Tesla Motors, founded in 2003. And Tesla makes ... gee, what kind of car was that again?

Originally Posted by Poor Debater

No, the last US car company was successfully started from scratch would be Tesla Motors, founded in 2003. And Tesla makes ... gee, what kind of car was that again?

Oooh, I know this one:

Exotic sports cars and luxury cars that cost nearly as much as a house.

There are more Veyrons on the road than Teslas.

Does Tesla make any money, or are they headed down the same path as Fisker?