Posted on 03/07/2021 8:08:35 PM PST by MinorityRepublican
Car dealer Brad Sowers is spending money to prepare for the coming wave of new electric models from General Motors Co. He is installing charging stations, upgrading service bays and retraining staff at his St. Louis-area dealership to handle the technology-packed vehicles.
But when he considers how many plug-in Chevy Bolts he sold last year—nine, out of the nearly 4,000 Chevrolets sold at his Missouri dealerships—it gives him pause.
“The consumer in the middle of America just isn’t there yet,” when it comes to switching to electric vehicles, he said, citing the long distances many of his customers drive daily and a lack of charging infrastructure outside major cities.
As auto executives and investors buzz about the coming age of the electric car, many dealers say they are struggling to square that enthusiasm with the reality today on new-car sales lots, where last year battery-powered vehicles made up fewer than 2% of U.S. auto sales.
Most consumers who come to showrooms aren’t shopping for electric cars, and with gasoline prices relatively low, even hybrid models can be a tough sell, dealers and industry analysts say.
Auto makers are moving aggressively to expand their electric-vehicle offerings with dozens of new models set to arrive in coming years. Some like GM are setting firm targets for when they plan to phase out gas-powered cars entirely.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
“Commuter vehicle”
Which is most of the use. Hardly a niche market!
“Until you can go 300 (minimal) miles on a charge and recharge fully in 5-10 minutes EV’s are a non starter.”
We already have 350 kw charging. Tesla is hinting 450 kw later this year.
At 450 kw, you get 300 miles of charging in 10 minutes.
When my wife and I were young, she had a tiny economy car (cost her $2500 new including options and taxes, about 90hp). We hauled couches, mattresses and a water heater on the roof. Ran that sucker into the ground over the next 25 years. When our earnings improved we finally got a station wagon, then a truck. No one vehicle is suitable for all needs, but one makes do with what they have.
Yes we did buy it new. The first two recalls were over the airbags - I don’t think that was unique to Honda, though.
The one we got recently has to do with the protective coating on the drive shaft.
” The first two recalls were over the airbags - I don’t think that was unique to Honda, though.”
My 2008 Mustang had a recall in 2015. Nine months for bags available.
I saw in the news last week those same type of airbags were still being recalled.
We got hit very hard from behind after having the car for only a few years.
Airbags never deployed.
Thousands of dollars of damage done, but it was the other driver’s fault, and their insurance paid. Car came out looking and driving as good as new, and has been excellently serviceable ever since. (Though I doubt that Carfax would think so. We’ll drive it into the ground, as we do all of our cars...)
I stand corrected. 400 kw stations are being installed in Europe.
China is developing a 900 kw charger. 300 miles of charging in five minutes.
The airbag recalls were (and still are) industry wide, about every major manufacturer had to recall some of their vehicles that had the defective Takata-made airbags.
The driveshaft recall is either due to a coating that didn’t work or that wasn’t properly applied from what I’ve read. Basically, it’s not completely treated to prevent rust caused by anti-ice road salt up in the Rust Belt.
Ummm... Front airbags generally aren’t supposed to deploy if the car is hit from the rear; depending on timing they can magnify injury or cause death. Some systems will deploy the side airbags to prevent your head from hitting hard surfaces.
LOL!
Everyone saw you lie about the accurate quotes and everyone saw the context.
Yet you lie. So everyone assumes you lie as freely in your other comments.
Gotta figure your purpose here is to make EV fans look like lying fools.
“That’s why Democratic lawmakers, led by Sen. Chris Brooks (D-Las Vegas), are preparing to introduce a substantial energy policy bill in the 2021 Legislature that would mark one of the state’s largest investments in electric vehicle infrastructure — requiring NV Energy to spend $100 million over the next three years to construct charging stations throughout the state.”
https://thenevadaindependent.com/article/lawmakers-preparing-wide-ranging-clean-energy-bill-includes-100-million-for-electric-car-charging-stations
Nevada electric users are going to be billed $100 million to provide “free” charging stations for EV drivers.
If they charge a very high price to the EV drivers it could actually be a good deal- but they won’t.
Well, we have front and side; and nothing went off. I guess we were lucky. The hair barrette on the back of my head snapped and stung me; and I had to walk a few blocks home in freezing weather while husband dealt with police. But no other physical injury.
And we got a very nice loaner for the WEEKS it took them to get our car back in shape. We understood that it was about 6K worth of damage (I don’t know if we could have sold or traded the three-year old the car for that much, just before the accident happened) but the woman who hit us had a good and accommodating insurance company!
All’s Well that Ends Well.
The airbag recall wasn’t unique to Honda.
A couple of years after the initial Takata recall, many Takata airbags had to be recalled again. Fist thing I asked about the second recall was why is that company still in business.
SERIOUSLY, do you really want me to grab your post and show how you took mine out of context AND also changed my words?
Is it still in business now? (In case we buy another car soon...)
LOL!
Yes! Yes!
Prove what a fool you’ve been.
Frankly it astonished me.
I agree, comparatively it is cheap though I will add that you drive roughly 3 times the miles I do so that greatly reduces the disparity between our payments. I think we can agree that you are overtaxed.
Takata went bankrupt in 2017 because they couldn’t pay for all of the bad airbags. Creditors took over and they’re still around under a new name. We’ll see how that works out.
On most cars, the trip sensors for the airbags are in the nose and sides, not the rear.
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