this post was submitted on 02 Sep 2024
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Futurology
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I feel like they are missing a bit. Most people don’t buy brand new cars. You have to be solidly “middle class” to have that on the table. I am the target consumer and they are completely missing me. I have a family. My wife and I both work. I have a small gas truck that is our all-in-one family vehicle. She has an eco box for commuting. Most potential customers already have a big gas truck or SUV. An EV would be their second car for work commuting. They are not selling that. They are trying to sell EVs as all-in-one replacements for gas cars when really they should be designed and marketed as supplements to the car you already have. What ends up happening is customers “settle” for hybrids. The focus on charging difficulty is misplaced. In general, people who live in apartments don’t buy brand new vehicles. At least that’s what I think.
They tried that with the leaf and fiat EVs, perfect little daily commuters. Everyone worried about the range. The only way to improve range is to use more battery which requires a bigger platform, so they upsize them to where they are today. The real truth is that people want different things and have different needs, but to save money, car companies want the one thing that suits everyone. All new cars look the same to me. Hatchback crossover hell. ICE or EV or hybrid, minor variations between brands, indistinguishable from more than 10ft away unless you recognize the shape of the lights. Every brand is trying to eat the market of the other brands instead of trying to fill markets that aren’t covered yet. Hell, look at the EV trucks. All full size, no small trucks. Telo is the only one chasing that market and who knows if they’ll ever make it to production.
When my wife and I looked at a Leaf, it was priced $8500 over MSRP, which is exactly what our tax credit would have been. That completely turned us off Nissan forever. Fiats are POS’s.