Featured Anti-Plugin War is Heating up Fast

might, might not. we'll find out. i don't know anyone who's interested except me. i read yesterday that toyota is down 9% this year because camry, corolla and prius sales are lost to trucks and suv's of other mfg.'s.

 

Yesterday, on CBS radio, they played a commercial specifically for the Prius hatchback and the Prime. That's a first around here.

 

wow, never heard one here either.

 

Plenty of articles by car enthusaists exclaiming the improved performance of the electric over the ICE, and also the quiet, smooth ride.

I believe @Zythryn held some informal surveys over on plug in sites, and most people buying were coming from an ICE. IIRC, maybe 10% of Volt buyers were trading in a Prius during the first year or two, and then it dropped.

The only thing that hybrids offer most potential buyers is savings at the pump, and that comes at a higher price and perhaps lost space. Plug ins offer more that will pull in buyers when fuel prices aren't a factor. Toyota never got 400k $1000 deposits for just the chance of buying a Prius. To move the 400k plus Camries they do in year requires money taken off the price for some of them.

 

surveys on plug in forums are meaningless.

i never brought hybrids into the equation. i'm talking about the time frame to move significant numbers of taser drivers to bev's.

it doesn't matter what it requires to move camry's, suburbans or f150's, that's what people who aren't interested in plug in's are buying, and are the people who need to move to plug in's to change the statistic.

 

agreed, that's why i'm on the 10 year plan. i hope i'm wrong, who knows?

 

Agreed.

Sad but true!
People around here got "used to" paying $4plus/gal for gas several years ago, now that it's literally half that price... they feel like it's a super bargain and it justifies soccer moms driving 8-seat SUV's to pick up a loaf of bread then another trip for milk later on that afternoon.

Not that I can see any situation under current conditions where it would happen any time soon... but if gas went up to $4+/gallon nationwide, you'd suddenly see renewed interest in plugins/EV's etc..till that happens- it's just us tree huggers

 

No, they are not.
Are they definitive? No. But they do give a better indication than one person's opinion.

You may not have originally brought up hybrids, but you did state that there was no evidence plugin buyers were switching from non-hybrids.

There is some evidence, that was the point.
Plugins will advance beyond the hybrid market share because they are appealing on many additional levels.
Plugins may not replace ALL vehicles because they are not appealing on ALL levels, but they are on many.
And they are grabbing owners of trucks, performance cars, and other gas guzzlers.

 

You brought hybrids into it here.

You are implying that BEV sales growth is do to a majority number of previous hybrid owners switching. That BEVs only appeal to the same range of consumers as hybrids. If that were so, Tesla would not have done as well against its straight ICE competition as it has.

 

The dealer I bought the Volt from had a Bolt listed, but they didn't get it yet. Yesterday, the ad was gone, so I asked if they got it in and sold it and was told they pulled the ad because of all the phone calls from people wanting to see it.

 

I inquired about a Bolt a a local dealership last week, a nice loaded Cajun Red Premier edition they were advertising on their website.
We discussed the included options, the VIN#, and even the price. I finally said- "okay, I'd like to come down an see it on my way home from work tonight"... that's when the dealer replied.. "oh, it's in transit to us... we don't have it yet".
I think it's par for the course.... it creates a sense of urgency once it finally arrives.

 

i said when hybrid drivers finish switching to bev's, you completely changed the context. i'm not claiming that hybrids are going to grow in the current climate either.

 

I was told when photos of the actual car and not stock photos are listed in the ad, they have the car.

 

^ interesting, good tip...thanks!

 

It was the exact same context.
You said when hybrid drivers finish switching... then he said BEV's are growing regardless of hybrid owners switching.
It is a disagreement with your conclusion, but the context is identical.

 

hybrid owners haven't finished switching, so the point is pointless. you still have zero data to offer. i, on the other hand, am only offering my opinion, and you know what it's worth.

 

Total hybrid sales in the US have been going down since 2013. The introduction of the Rav4 might help, but the introduction of new models generally hasn't turned the trend around.
Alternative Fuels Data Center: Maps and Data - U.S. HEV Sales by Model
Plug in sales have been increasing over the same time.
Monthly Plug-In Sales Scorecard

The largest ratio of Prii traded in for a plug in was when they 18% of the trade ins for the Leaf back in 2011. Another 20% were just Toyotas, so a few more hybrids might be there, but that still leaves a huge amount of the trade ins to be traditional ICE cars. For the Volt, 7% of trade ins were Prii.
Buyers trading in Toyota Prius for Chevy Volt, Nissan Leaf - Autoblog

In more resent news, the reports here were that many hybrid owners were trading back to an ICE with the lower fuel prices. So lost hybrid sales aren't all going to plug ins. The numbers of hybrids on the roads available for trading in for a plug in haven't radically increased. So there isn't a supply to support even more hybrids being traded in for a plug in than there what was seen back in 2011, and those numbers could have been pushed up by people moving from one car losing HOV access to another that did.

With maybe 20% of trade ins for a plug in being a hybrid, at best, the 80% that were ICE cars is sizable enough to support plug in sales growth if all the hybrid owners left decided they didn't want a plug in.