DaveinOlyWA said:
jlsoaz said:
DaveinOlyWA said:
90 percent that "need" another car besides the LEAF
[...]My point was, and is,your claim of an exact number of "90%", a number which you keep repeating. Do you have any actual evidence for this exact figure of 90%?
Note that there is this one number of somewhere between 73 and 81% (19% having one EV and no ICV, and another 8% having two EVs or more and no ICV), which I get from this very small-sample non-scientific poll from this forum:
http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=10461" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
what i actually said is "90+%" which is based on transportation study of individual trips from home where 93% are under 40 miles round trip. (done in 2007 i think...but the length of trips have been declining)
as far as personal unscientific poll, that is nearly impossible to quantify. for example;
[...]
but my scientific poll showed several months where 100% of trips were under 40 miles. had my sister who is unique in that her SO's kids live 40 miles away so they take turns either picking them up 40 miles away or meeting "halfway" (which is about 30 miles away...not sure how that works out to half...) and even with those special circumstances, she is just now getting below 90% but only because of the holidays and additional trips they dont normally make.
so ya, i stick by my statement "90+%"
Hi Dave:
The "transportation study" you mention - is this just you performing some sort of research? Or is there a formal study somewhere you are trying to cite? Can you provide a link? I'm not sure what can be made of the personal annecdotes you run through, but, in any event, I'm not arguing the point that "a lot" of people need a gasoline or diesel vehicle as a second car. I have yet to see a defensible statement of exact percent of BEV buyers who need a gasoline or diesel vehicle to supplement the BEV.
I do like that the poll we have here in the forum in itself suggests that one avenue to research would be not so much what potential BEV drivers claim, or what researchers claim, but rather what actual drivers choose. To give results some defensibility, we would need a more legitimate sampling procedure and study. It might be interesting if PIA or others were to look into this and shed some light on it, but maybe that has already been done.
Getting back to the point of the thread (my suggestion for marketing, zeroing in on the $ fuel savings), I don't think it's important to settle the exact percent, but instead I can simply acknowledge that the point is taken as a very good point that in many cases, a household will not be able to have only a BEV but may still need a HCV (hydrocarbon fueled vehicle, I think I'll try that acronym for awhile) for some of its miles, and so Leaf marketing should take this into account. Within the specifics of the video ad envisioned here, a way to do that might be to present a two-vehicle household and a running tally over the course of the commercial as to fuel dollars spent, and then on the other side of the screen, substitute out one of the gasoline vehicles for a Leaf and show that tally and see how things shape up.
This thread has also got me to thinking about tie-ins to other suggestions that have been made to Nissan as to trying to faciliate Leaf driver access to HCV for those times when the vehicles are needed. For example, there might be a car-sharing service that might offer access, or some sort of special deal that a Leaf driver could have with the local Nissan dealership for occassional lease or rental, or perhaps an agreement with an established car rental company. Perhaps a negative could be turned somewhat into a positive where, if Nissan strikes the right chord, it could help Leaf drivers have access to a well-maintained high-mileage Nissan HCV for certain trips, while maintaining the access to the Leaf for other trips.
I'm also trying to figure out if we can make progress on insurance costs. In some cases where there is a one-driver one-car HCV household (like mine) and there is the acquisition of a Leaf, but the retaining of the HCV, then shouldn't insurance adjust not only for the addition of a second car, but the spreading of miles between the two cars? Maybe it already does (have to contact my insurance agent to verify # of annual miles is lowered on my HCV, and see if this saves me money).