Time to give Matt Drudge a Chevy Volt
Electrification is all about energy security
Countering the hybrid and plug-in haters won’t be easy
Earlier today I read How is the transition to electric cars going? in USAToday. Unfortunately, I found the article a bit dull. Wanting more I checked out the comments. Wow! If the comments in USA Today represent the current tone of average America regarding hybrid and plug-in vehicles, the battery-powered revolution is going to be a real war. In fact, I even checked out the DrudgeReport to see if there was a link to it firing up all this hate. There wasn’t.
And that got me wondering, perhaps it’s time for some out of the box thinking regarding plug-in advocate strategies.
Undoubtedly, some of the comments to the article represent a certain amount of ignorance regarding battery-powered technologies. Many of the concerns; however, are legitimate, such as range, costs, unintended consequences and more. Still, the overall angst towards battery-powered vehicles was seriously shocking.
Of course, battery-powered hate isn’t new, Hybridcarblog has witnessed many years of it. Nevertheless, to be honest, I’ve become somewhat numb to electrification hate. Sure, I used to spend much time trying to counter this hate, insisting that the dangers of foreign oil dependence demanded a battery-powered revolution, while countering many of the illogical and just plain wrong criticisms. But in recent years I’ve focused more on the science, largely because the science has demonstrated that there are very serious technological obstacles to the battery revolution I’ve longed to witness.
Ultimately, if we’re serious about trying to fight foreign oil dependence as quickly as possible, for instance, the technological limitations of battery-powered vehicles must be accepted because there are workarounds, options and opportunities for convergence amongst various technologies.
Nonetheless, that makes the hate in these comments even more worrisome.
Inevitably, if there is one way to abruptly change the dynamics of electrification – even energy independence itself - it’s consumer psychology. Today, for example, consumers buy far more car than is used or needed. Too much of personal mobility has too little to do with function and too much to do with emotion. Americans have made cars an extension of ego, at the expense of America’s national security and innovative spirit.
Unfortunately, as the comments to the USAToday article clearly demonstrate, changing this consumer psychology will not be easy. In fact, until someone like Drudge shines a light on the positive side of electrification and on the need for more focus on energy independence, mainstreaming plug-ins might be darn near impossible.
That’s really tihinkng out of the box. Thanks!
I’m just saying… Mom is not going to trade in her SUV or MiniVan for a weird-looking pseudo concept car.
The thing to understand is that we have about 50 major urban areas in this country.
Most of the folks who comment here probably live in or near one.
Take a look at the rush-hour traffic.
These are often: solo drivers …driving every day … often put 30K miles and more on their cars every year.
Mom… living in suburbia probably puts 15K miles a year or less on her SUV/mini-van and her average trip is probably 5-10 miles not the 30-50 miles that many daily solo commuters do.
Commuters will get rid of their SUVs and get econo-boxes of a cheap variety when gas gets expensive.
Others will carpool or ride mass transit.
but this is where the real gasoline usage is – not on Mom’s SUV/Minivan.
In a 15K a year scenario – adding a dollar to the price of gasoline is going to add about $20 a week to the budget.
Most are going to complain but find that $20 pretty easily.
Not so with the guy buying 5 gallons a day or more.
The car companies KNOW THIS MARKET.
and car companies RESPOND to the Market – not dictate to it.
Larry,
I am in total agreement with your philosophy on family sized vehicles.
I think Ford and Chevy are also in touch with consumer desire which is why they have been reluctant to produce the Eco-boxes that like many of the concepts we have seen.
Fords hybrid vehicles? The Escape hybrid and the Fusion hybrid. Two very family friendly vehicles. Even the Focus EV is a very practical vehicle.
GM has a similar strategy, pushing hybrid trucks before pushing a bunch of eco-boxes. Their first EV is the Volt, once again, a very practical vehicle.
We may criticize Ford and GM a lot, but they do know their market…….
One of the things that I most like about Obama is his strong support for electric vehicles. Unfortunately, the right wing media also realized that Obama strongly supports EV’s.
Since the right wing media is against anything that Obama is for, they declared war on EV’s.
The only way to get the Matt Drudge to be in support of EV’s is to convince Obama to change his position and be “against” EV’s..
I have to agree with Tom on this one. EV manufacturers need to make vehicles that are just as dumb and dull as the gas guzzlers people buy now. That’s what will draw them in – familiarity over design innovation. After all, if it doesn’t sell in Peoria, why would it sell anyplace else?
Oh, and Matt Drudge doesn’t need a Volt. He needs a two-by-four upside his head…
@ LarryG
Assuming Normal Distribution of data:
1 sigma ~ 68%
2 sigma ~ 95%
3 sigma ~ 99% and it goes on from there.
6 sigma is approximately 3.4 defects per million. Here is a pretty good link for a quick review of old quality guru stuff
http://www.regentsprep.org/Regents/math/algtrig/ATS2/NormalLesson.htm
Of course if you have nothing better to do with your life [like me] you can pull out Juran’s Handbook on Quality and geek away, LOL.
I was just typing stuff off the top of my head and when I went back and read what I wrote, I realized someone would comment for sure. Sorry for using an uncommon term in the manner I did.
I also agree with your comment about young and single individuals, mom’s and dad’s. Even as an old goat, I would never consider a one passenger vehicle; 2 passengers yes. I do have a wife, and grand-kids and need to carry all kinds of stuff from time to time. However, if it was cheap enough and I lived close enough to work, MAYBE.
Tom G.
Tom-
“Isn’t it funny how we treat new ideas and concepts sometimes, LOL.”
That’s what I’m trying to get at. We have to think outside of the box. For instance, I think the research proves conclusively that the idea that we can just plug-in our current fleet of vehicles is terribly flawed. We will, at least I believe, ultimately have no choice but to radically rethink transportation.
For most but those in Gen Y, these concepts might be almost impossible to handle and probably impossible to drive forward. But, when you look at Gen Y, you can see the possibilities. Add companies like Google trying to make driverless cars a reality in Las Vegas and it isn’t too hard to envision disruptive transportation models. These models will happen. Maybe the US will drive them, maybe we won’t. Maybe they’ll happen in time, maybe they won’t. But the future of energy is not going to support our status quo.
Larry, I understand your family argument and how that impacts the automakers, I’ve heard those arguments first hand from a number of major auto executives. Yet, as you point out, why are these auto companies able to serve the needs of families in many other countries, including modern ones with fleets of vehicles not much bigger than the Prius?
My opinion is simply that the status quo simply is unsustainable and that fact is going to be proven, in my polite opinion, within the next 5 years. Today, $4.00 gas is causing significant hardship to 40 percent of Americans according to the latest polls. What happens if its $5.00 gas next year and it sticks for a year?
While I hope I’m wrong I believe we’re going to see significantly higher prices within the next 5 years, yet we’re still acting as if there are decades before we really have to change.
not sure what percent 6 sigma is but last time I checked 2 sigma was 99+%… eh?
some of what is missing in some of the editorials here is (in my polite opinion) a lack of understanding of what constitutes the major auto consumer groups in the USA and … WHY those groups tend to gravitate towards certain classes of vehicles.
Certainly – Ford, Chevy, Dodge, Toyota, Nissan, Kia, Hyndai… know…
A significant chuck of America likes family-sized vehicles – min-vans and SUVs and are never, ever going to be in the market for esoterica ….
Younger, singles… even older singles..yes… but your average mom and dad and family is not.
If any of the major manufacturers offer a standard Minvi-Van or SUV that gets 40 mpg. they’ll sell the hell out of it.
Ditto for a Pickup truck.
but 99% (that’s 2 sigma I think) of the “concept” cars that we see .. have virtually ZERO appeal to “family” America.
if you want to mainstream hybrid technology – you gotta include the families.
Our host said this in part: “the battery-powered revolution is going to be a real war.”. I did read the article and watch the associated video before posting this and here is what I think.
I don’t know of any of my friends [or myself] that would buy a lime green colored car regardless of the mode of operation. If you look at the normal distribution curve manufacturers use to determine what color to paint cars, lime green is probably somewhere out beyond 6 sigma meaning only a couple per year might get that color if any. It’s about the same as me saying that I intended to paint my home purple since that color is loved by everyone and will result in a quick sale. I am probably either misinformed or smoking too much of that funny stuff sick people can buy in California. I don’t think you are going to get a whole bunch of people who like lime green or purple. Of course the manufacturers intentions for painting this vehicle this color is of course to quickly identify the vehicle as ‘green’.
Three wheels vs 4 wheels? O.K. so the Volt has 4 wheels. The Leaf has 4 wheels. The Prius has 4 wheels and every one of these vehicle carries at least 4 people. This lime green thing has 3 wheels, carries one person and the Aptera has 3 wheels and carries 2 people. That is not what mainstream America drives. Also when people think about buying a three wheel vehicles do they remember back to the days when they tipped over on their tricycle? I sure do. Not too long ago I went for a demo ride on a modern 3 wheel motorcycle. It seemed stable enough but in the back of my mine I was wondering just how fast I could go around a corner before the front wheel lifted off the ground. Don’t seem to have that same fear in the back of my mind when driving my 4 wheel vehicles. So what do you think – is mainstream America ready for 3 wheel vehicle 1 or 2 passenger vehicles? I wonder how they will perform in snow, mud, sleet, hail and rain.
I don’t think the mainstream American consumer is ready for 1 passenger, lime green, 3 wheel vehicles as a primary vehicle for their transportation needs. Basically I think this article was written for electric vehicle geeks – not the mainstream American consumer since 99.98% wouldn’t buy one if it got 200 mpg. Think about it for a minute – would you use this vehicle to drive to work knowing that some 4 ton delivery vehicle could mash you against a wall? I put this vehicle in the same category as a gas or electric powered golf cart with fiberglass sides instead of canvas curtains.
SUMMARY
So here I am criticizing a vehicle I have never driven, never seen in person, never read about before or have any idea if it would be safe in an accident or not. Isn’t it funny how we treat new ideas and concepts sometimes, LOL