GM CEO Mary Barra told the news media at an \u201cEV Day\u201d last week that the product overhaul is necessary to prevent environmental catastrophe: \u201cWe are building to an EV future because we believe that climate change is real.\u201d<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
GM is targeting Tesla a decade after introducing the Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid in response to the Toyota Prius hybrid which industry analysts expected to lead a consumer stampede to hybrids. Volt production ended last year after disappointing sales, while Prius sales are off 60% from last decade as predictions of an oil shock never came to fruition.<\/p>\n
This month\u2019s drop in crude prices may create more headwinds for battery-powered vehicles.<\/p>\n
The average price of gas nationally was $2.34 this week \u2013 down from $4-a-gallon in 2011 \u2013 with prices as low as $1.79 in Metro Detroit due to an international oil price war cause by decreased demand due to the coronavirus scare.<\/p>\n
Despite the U.S.\u00a0debut of 45 pure electric and plug-in hybrids to considerable hype last year, battery-powered sales plunged 6.8%\u00a0to only 325,000 in sales according to Edmunds.<\/p>\n
BMW and Mercedes, however, are bullish on sales of their EV SUVs overseas, especially in Europe and China where government incentives are heavily skewed toward electrics. In Europe auto fleets must meet carbon dioxide targets of 95 grams\/per liter \u2013 equivalent to 57 mpg \u2013 or face massive fines.<\/p>\n
A U.S. National Highway Transportation Safety Administration analysis of a similar U.S.\u00a0target of 54.5 mpg by 2025 would have no impact on global temperatures by the year 2100.<\/p>\n
To encourage consumers to buy EVs, countries are dangling a host of incentives \u2013 and penalties. France, for example is imposing a tax of up to $20,000 on non-electric cars. A new VW Touareg diesel SUV will see an increased tax this year of nearly $8,000. Norway and Denmark tax non-EVs by over 100% of sticker price.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe EV market is purely a government creation,\u201d said Seeking Alpha auto analyst and investor Anton Wahlman. \u201cTake away government mandates, subsidies and other incentives, and EVs are a steady 0.1%\u00a0of the market whether we\u2019re talking about Laos, Louisiana or Luxembourg.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite nixing the iX3 \u2014\u00a0and poor sales for its current i3 and i8 EV lineup currently \u2014\u00a0 a BMW spokesperson says more EVs are in the pipeline for the US in 2021: \u201cThe iNext goes into production in the middle of 2021, followed by the BMW i4, which begins production towards the end of 2021.\u201d<\/p>\n
Both vehicles are based on BMW’s all-new \u201cskateboard\u201d architecture.<\/p>\n
GM EVs will also be based on a new skateboard platform which the company believes is game-changing when combined with the continued drop of battery prices. GM says that, in addition to its green benefits, its BEV3 architecture is more efficient to manufacture, provides more crash protection than gas cars, and will offer a more refined driving experience.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo one knows the (customer) adoption curve,\u201d GM President Mark Reuss said last week. \u201cSo we have to be tooled and ready to go.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other automakers express similar sentiments that EV adoption is inevitable both because of government regulation and a consumer shift. At a Volkswagen test program in Vancouver this month, executives said the millennial generation covets EVs because they are environmentally aware \u2013 and because they expect the same technology in cars as in their battery-powered smartphones.<\/p>\n
VW plans on introducing the first of its all-electric ID line \u2013 the Tesla-like ID.4 crossover \u2013 to the U.S.\u00a0later this year. Product planners say, however, EV acceptance in the U.S.\u00a0may come slowly.<\/p>\n
So to meet consumer demand, VW is introducing another variant of its hot-selling\u00a0gas-powered three-row Atlas SUV \u2013 the two-row Atlas Cross Sport.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As General Motors and Ford Motor Co. bet the farm on electric vehicles, European manufacturers are pulling vehicles from the U.S.\u00a0market for lack of demand. BMW confirmed this week that it will not bring its electric iX3 crossover to these shores, following a decision by Mercedes in December to delay the introduction of its EQC […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24963"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24963"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24963\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24964,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24963\/revisions\/24964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}