Many large corporations make a big show to their stockholders of using market research to determine what they will develop and sell. The truth is that most are still almost entirely driven by the opinions of their executives. Research is designed to reinforce what the management team already "knows."
There's an old saw that says a consultant is a person who takes a number from the company and charges them to give it back. Same for researchers. A successful (profitable) research consultant is one who gives the company's managers the answer they already know they want. This model works when the executive's views are similar to those of the intended customers, and he or she is an enthusiastic user of the products. This is how Steve Jobs made Apple successful, and I suspect it's also why Elon Musk is doing well with Tesla. But the typical corporation is run by a person who only knows one thing. He will keep the company doing that one thing, with minor tweaks round the edges, until he's (nearly) run the company into the ground. Then the shareholders and board will give him a golden parachute and bring in someone else, who'll make different mistakes. There are exceptions, mostly in degree; but by and large, that's the way business works. As long as the automakers are run by old (or attitudinally old) men who only know about building slightly more efficient ICEVs, slightly more efficient ICEVs is all they will offer us, regardless of what the market wants or needs. This is why those of us who are interested in factory EVs should be patronizing the companies that have some commitment to EVs - Tesla, and possibly Nissan and Renault. We shouldn't reward (with our money) those who are just building or will build compliance cars - Ford, Fiat, Mitsubishi, and probably GM and VW. My two milliwatts' worth. David Roden - Akron, Ohio, USA EVDL Administrator = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = EVDL Information: http://www.evdl.org/help/ = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Note: mail sent to "evpost" and "etpost" addresses will not reach me. To send a private message, please obtain my email address from the webpage http://www.evdl.org/help/ . = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = _______________________________________________ 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)
