World's Auto Execs Don't Buy Their Electric Cars Hype

"Fuel-efficiency remains the biggest consideration when purchasing a car" How odd. I wonder why people worry about that more than total cost of ownership per mile? After all, I can think of several relatively cheap cars that cost more in tires than gas.

“Fuel-efficiency remains the biggest consideration when purchasing a car” No it isn't. We might talk about fuel efficiency but if it REALLY was people would never buy SUVs or minivans for commuter duty. Go visit Europe and see what people drive when they are SERIOUS about saving money on fuel. The USA has several high mileage options - the Prius, the Insight, and the Detroit hybrids. Then there are the nearly 50 mpg VW turbo diesels. If gas mileage was tops on people's lists then they would be buying these more than any other vehicles on the market. People would be looking at the smallest engine options vs the "poweh" options like the V-6 and V-8 engines. They would be clambering for manual transmissions to squeeze the extra 1 mpg out of their engines. I think there alot of people who THINk they need 300 mile ranges just like there are alot of people who think they need 200 HP to bring home the groceries. If that is what they like so be it. I'm confident that most of us here can reset our trip odometers today and find that our daily commutes are under 100 miles per day. I could just about drive to work on flashlight batteries (14 miles round trip). Get these cars to market now in numbers and people will buy them if they are sold at reasonable costs ($25K). The problem is that the automakers know that EVs are inevitable with the march of technology and the EV represents a huge game changer to the revenue machine that the automakers have so carefully designed and tweaked to max profits over the years. Why would any company willingly shoot their cash cow? I can't blame them. The fact is that we are going to NEED some of these EVs in the traffic mix to minimize tailpipe emissions in crowded cities. These car companies are going to stall the technology as long as possible. They are going to get all the green marketing and green kudos they can from the technology without releasing any electric cars. Now that Nissan is releasing the Leaf, if the product is successful, then all the other manufacturers will be compelled to release similar products to a few years' time or look like they are out of date. I figure there will be some sort of critical mass at some future point (a decade after EVs reach the mainstream?) where there are more EVs are sold than gasoline or diesel vehicles and we'll watch the automobile suppliers that build engine parts disappear. We'll also begin to see the service departments of dealers begin to change in significant ways. Gone will be oil changes and filter changes. Brakes will outlast the car. My CR-V still has it's original rear brake shoes at 211K miles. A vehicle with regen brakes will likely never need brake parts or perhaps it'll need a single set of front pads at some point. Yeah car companies see the writing on the wall. The question was simply who would pull the trigger first. Toyota did with the RAV4-EV (selling it to consumers) but GM and Chevron managed to sue them back into line over the battery. This time it's Nissan who wants to be first. It might be Ford that offers EV#2 with the Focus. That car certainly looks nice but what will the production version look like? Will probably lose the nice wheels, maybe the interesting nose and tail. Maybe they'll get the green cred and then never build it. See GM and fuelcell technology (among others).