Sunday, January 2, 2011

So much for mini, compact and Electric Cars

This was the year General Motors Co. and Nissan made good on their promise to bring mass produced electric cars to the market. But don't count on seeing one in traffic soon. Sales so far have been microscopic and they're likely to stay that way for some time because of limited supplies.
GM sold between 250 and 350 Chevy Volts this month and Nissan's sales totaled less than 10 Leaf sedans in the past two weeks. Production for both is slowly ramping up.
More on this story HERE.






On the other hand. It seems that we still love our road hogs:
If U.S. consumers are in the midst of a green revolution, the news hasn't reached car buyers.
With the end of the recession, bigger vehicles have made a comeback, sales figures show, and it has come at the expense of smaller, more-efficient cars.
Leading the growth were sales of midsize sport-utility vehicles, which jumped 41 percent through the first 11 months of the year, led by vehicles such as the Jeep Grand Cherokee and the Honda Pilot, each of which get about 18 miles per gallon.
More on this story HERE.

As for my personal preference. They'll have to pry my cold dead hands off the steering wheel before i'd give up my Denali.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very funny stuff Bos!

I drive a GMC Sierra myself, just like Romney.
The wife has a Toyota Corolla. We take the truck on longer trips. For anything other than short trips, the Toyota is not the most comfortable car out there.

zeke

Anonymous said...

For the past seven years, I've had two cars.

One is a little Saturn coupe with a small engine that gets great mileage. I've generally gotten around 30 mpg for normal driving. I've been on interstate trips where I got about 40 mpg.

From '93 until '08, my second vehicle was a Mazda B2600i 4x4 pickup truck. I got about 18 mpg in the truck. Since late '08, my second vehicle has been a Hyundai Santa Fe. The Santa Fe gets about 20 around town and about 23 or 24 on the interstate.

I've reached the age where I only take the Santa Fe on long trips. I just don't do as well folding myself into the Saturn for hours at a time. The Mazda truck was never that comfortable for long trips either.

I'm in an odd position in that I like to have a bigger vehicle for carrying kayaks on the roof. A very tall truck isn't ideal because getting up there with the kayak is difficult. If I didn't have that requirement, I'd love to have one very big vehicle and one small one. I looked pretty hard at a Silverado when I bought the Santa Fe.

The secret for these cars will be getting the price to the point that people can buy them strictly for commuting. They look funny, but I wouldn't mind driving one to work and for some errands if I didn't have to be in the car for long periods of time. I wouldn't want to take one on a long road trip, and I would only have one if I had another vehicle for when I had other needs. The problem is that these cars will be too expensive for this purpose for most people.

Michael said...

Until the price and looks of these electrics get to the level of comparable gas models, they will remain a novelty car.

David said...

Excellent point Michael. Most electrics are ugly and very expensive.

Bill589 said...

The electric cars are expensive and I understand that’s even after government (we tax-payers’) subsidization. I guess I’m paying for part of the one I see from time to time.

Did the tax-payers have to subsidize gasoline power cars when we switched from horse and carriage? Did tax-payers have to pay for gas-stations to be built?

I love free-market. I hate government deciding where to spend my money. I do it better.

Revolution 2012 said...

Bos,

I don't know where you find your videos but the gut trying to park that roller skate is hilarious.

Michael said...

Electric cars aren't to practical in major inner cities.

I can picture these long electrical cords crossing sidewalks across the inner city streets and people hopping over them as they maneuver along.

Anonymous said...

Bill589,

Yes we did. We spent billions building and maintaining roads. This drove many train, tram, and urban rail lines out of business since they also had to maintain their own right of way and rails. I love my car but to assume that the government didn't influence the winner in the transportation world is incorrect.

JAO

Maruti Ertiga Price said...

Yes electric cars are the future of car industry.