This brings back the semantics issue of calling the Volt an EV. "The People" will never figure out what an EV is unless the industry and media stop calling the Volt and other hybrid drive and hybrid (onboard) fuel systems vehicles EVs!
Further, I would argue that the only sales numbers that matter at this point are Tesla and Nissan Leaf. I could be wrong but those are the only production OEM's that have a major stake in EVs. And even Nissan is not fully in the game. You still can't buy a Leaf from many Nissan dealers and may not be able to for years if ever. If Tesla can maintain minimal success (profitability and 20k cars per year) for the next 5 years I think the boom-bust cycle will have been broken and only then will the rest of the majors join Nissan with a real EV effort. John On Jul 20, 2013, at 12:31 PM, Lee Hart <[email protected]> wrote: > I expect the current cycle to be much like the last one (1997-2000), except > for the presence of Tesla. They are a wild card, showing that the "king has > no pants". The big auto companies will have a hard time claiming that EVs > don't work and won't sell with Tesla out there, proving otherwise. Solectria > served much the same role in the last cycle (with their Sunrise), but they > weren't nearly as well funded and didn't survive. > > As long as Tesla survives, the present EV movement will stay alive. But if > they stumble, the pundits will jump on them like vultures on a roadkill. I > think the auto companies would then take the opportunity to get out of EVs as > fast as possible. _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
