Valdemar said:
Stanton said:
EVs are here to stay...whether you like the Leaf or not.
It has nothing to do with my liking of the Leaf. New car sales suck, used car sales suck, batteries suck, public charging infrastructure sucks, out of warranty repairs are $$$$, federal incentives will run out, people are too smart to get into EV game for good reasons. Yes, the gen 2 is presumably coming out, but no one said it won't be another flop even if it makes it to market.
Hi Valdemar,
I think you're over-simplifying, just a bit.
earlier in the thread you also wrote:
People aren't exactly lining up to get EVs, longer range will help some but how much? Low gas prices aren't exactly helping. Sooner or later they will have to decide that enough is enough.
I agree low gas prices are a nasty headwind (in the US, though not as much in most other developed markets).
I agree there are (some) clouds on the horizon from a business sustainability analysis standpoint.
I have always thought (before I got my 2012 Leaf) that Nissan's choice to go with 24 kWh was a significant error, and it arguably left the door open for years of criticism and difficulty. If they failed to increase kWh then I think there would come a point where they'd have to throw in the towel, especially with competitors in addition to Tesla finally coming more into the picture and helping force the issue in the marketplace. I think correcting that error (now that there are more concrete signs they are moving on this), even very belatedly, will help the long-term sustainability of the Leaf, even with the drawbacks of lower gas prices in the US.
As to "lining up" to buy EVs, even in the US with our low gas prices, they are indeed doing so. There is a substantial wait-list for the upcoming Model X. There is probably not a wait-list for very low kWh BEVs such as the 24 kWh Leaf. An up-and-coming slightly improved kWh vehicle, the Soul BEV, is (I think) supply-constrained not demand-constrained.
Infrastructure - I don't see that many complaints about SuperChargers. I've had mixed experiences with some other infra, and do think your criticisms have at least some merit, but I have also had some ok experiences, and have seen some improvement (if painfully slow) in other areas.
I think it's a good idea to raise questions about the direction of the industry and individual companies, but I think your own initial points are broad-brush enough so that I would have to disagree on some things.