On Tue, 2002-09-24 at 17:29, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > The blantant lies of Ford and GM that "no one wants EVs" are, IMHO, their > > biggest vulnerability. ... that could be used as leverage to pry open > > the lie... perhaps a legal action would be useful > > Not really intending to flame the EV list, but has anyone actually considered > the automaker's point of view? I would propose to take all names on all the > waiting lists, all the internet petitions, what have you and add them up. > Then double it for margin of error (a very liberal one). Does this even add up > to one months' production of any ICE car? My position is that if you sold an EV > to absolutely everyone that wanted one, it wouldn't amount to enough to be worth > a months' production run. Be realistic, they don't build ICE's in low numbers > either. Hard to believe, but not *everyone* wants an EV. It's a niche > automobile, with a demand limited to what a few custom shops and home > converters can meet. I for one, believe the various EV programs truly were > cancelled due to low demand. Compare the number of requests for EV's to the > number of those who want a livingroom on wheels. They build what people will > actually buy, not what a vocal minority "demands". If anything's going to > happen on a large OEM scale, it will only happen through a huge upsurge in > the custom/small converter market, or what their demographics reveal as trends. > Industry has no conscience, it responds to profit margins and regulations. > Unless you can convince them through one or the other that they need to build > EV's, you'd better get used to the idea of building or buying a conversion.
I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but can't completely agree that this is "pure business as usual". Most manufacturers (including GM) have several "low volume", niche market, cars in their stable. Most don't make a profit and are only produced to present a particular image. So what makes an environmentally friendly image less desirable? It's not as sexy as a high HP sports car. My 2V, Lonnie Borntreger
