Good point. They definitely are not trying to sell them.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless 4G LTE smartphone-------- Original message
--------From: EVDL Administrator via EV <ev@lists.evdl.org> Date: 10/24/2015
10:17 AM (GMT-06:00) To: Electric Vehicle Discussion List <ev@lists.evdl.org>
Subject: Re: [EVDL] EVLN: GM Would Be Smart To Launch An e-Pickup Truck
Before Tesla
On 24 Oct 2015 at 6:44, dovepa via EV wrote:
> No one creates a market IMO.
Apologies for going a bit off topic here, but it's to make a point.
I'm not an economist so maybe I have my terminology wrong. I don't know
that it was actually "creating a market," but consider what the big
automakers did in promoting trucks and SUVs.
Until the 1980s, pickup trucks were for craftsmen and farmers. The poor
adolescent rural kid who had to drive his date to the dance in his dad's
pickup truck was a standing joke. Meanwhile, SUVs (Jeep, IH Scout, Land
Rover, Nissan Patrol, Toyota Land Cruiser) were noisy and rode rough; they
were mostly for sportsmen.
Detroit wasn't happy. They made big profits on big, gas hungry cars, but
those cars were subject to the US "gas guzzler" tax, which hurt sales.
They'd even had to downsize the Cadillac and Lincoln.
Then they hit on the idea of pushing big, gas-hungry TRUCKS, which weren't
subject to the gas guzzler tax because they were supposedly work vehicles.
IIRC Dodge was one of the first to "civilize" a pickup truck with a fancier
interior, softer springs, and noise proofing. (They also made a pickup with
a vinyl roof at one time!) There was a long line of ads showing how trucks
and SUVs could fit into a suburban lifestyle. And what do you know - truck
sales took off. Today the top selling vehicles are often trucks. That's
the power of advertising.
So IF the automakers truly wanted to create demand for EVs (which as I say
may not be the same thing as "creating a market"), either passenger car or
truck, they know how to do it. But right now there's no incentive for them
to do so.
It's interesting to contemplate though. What if building their compliance
EVs drove down EV component prices to the point where they were making MORE
profit on EVs than on ICEVs?
David Roden - Akron, Ohio, USA
EVDL Administrator
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