Saturday, December 13, 2014

Trailblazing

I can't even begin to thank Nissan enough for having the guts to be first to market with a viable EV that fits my needs and guess what? After 4 years, the Nissan LEAF is still the best fit for my needs.

Now, there is competition but you have to live in specific areas of the country for that.  I am (like 90% of the country) not lucky enough to have the correct zip code. So, again I am thankful that Nissan has fully committed to the LEAF and not half-as... well you know what I am saying.

But like the first place car in a race, setting the pace uses more fuel and can cause a situation where additional fuel stops are needed. Plus, cars behind can use the leader's slipstream to keep up while conserving fuel.  So is Nissan making a mistake? Right now, the biggest draw to EVs is their relative cheapness that combines a reasonable sticker price (after incentives) along with ridiculously low cost of operation.  But those federal incentives are limited. Its up to $7500 for the first 200,000 units from any manufacturer then it drops from there each quarter until zero.

Which makes me wonder if other manufacturers dragging their feet has more to do with getting a price advantage on Nissan than waiting for better technology?   Cause I have to think if there was a "ticking" clock, then everyone would be in the market right now trying to establish a niche in the market.

Nissan should be rewarded for pushing the envelop and allowing us to enjoy, learn and incorporate electric vehicles into our lives today! We have over ONE BILLION kilometers of EV driving under out belts and that number is growing exponentially!

But incentives can't or shouldn't go on forever. Unlike the Oil industry, the incentives should have a finite period. So, this is where you guys come in. We need to start petitioning our legislators to make the incentives time based and not unit based.  This puts all manufacturers on equal footing and the best part is it rewards the manufacturers who take the risk and brings products to market sooner rather than later.


And I am betting this will meet with huge resistance from manufacturers who currently have little or nothing to offer in the EV arena currently. They will say its unfair because Nissan has been enjoying the benefits of the incentives for over 4 years and several thousand more units than them. But whose fault is that?

Compliance cars are simply an answer to other manufacturers taking advantage of loopholes in the system. Lets close some of those holes! Contact your legislator today!!

5 comments:

  1. I wouldn't say the compliance manufacturers have been hanging back on purpose to later seize the market. I think they have been hanging back because they have been hanging back. Even if demand spikes for their compliance cars, they will continue to limit supply to allow them to continue selling their gassers. Once they hit quota, why make more?

    When the fed credits expire on Nissan, they will have to restructure their offerings. I suspect they will strip even more out of the S model to make it cheaper again while adding all the goodies to the SV and SL models widening the price gap between models. Nissan will have to compete on price with the non-compliance cars only. That's not too many right now, BMW being the one standing to gain the most.

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    1. Ya, that is exactly where Nissan is headed and our government's way of saying "Thank you for being first to provide a great EV nationwide but now you are screwed. Sorry but I see a HUGE problem with this.

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  2. Dave, Maybe the credits that are not being seriously used should migrate to the manufacturers that are putting out more than compliance EV's. - Pat, Vancouver

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  3. When is the 200,000 level expected to arrive?

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    1. less than a year after they release the new longer range LEAF. So it depends. I feel confident in predicting annual sales will soar over 100,000 per year when the range is nearly doubled. Now will that be this Summer for MY 2016 or 18 months or so for MY 2017 is anyone's guess.

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