Forbes: Ultra-Green Europe Slow To Buy Electric Vehicles

It's not that we're not green. There is a market for the vehicles but the manufacturers have decided to increase the prices compared to that charged in the US. Not only is there 10% import charge, 20% vat sales tax, but they believe they can justify higher costs for these cars because of the fuel savings. Unfortunately people aren't so stupid.

You may have seen many recent posts of mine about how Toyota are slowly pricing the Prius out of the market. It used to be competitive but now isn't. The Plug In Prius costs just a little less than the Volt! The Government is giving £5,000 grant for an EV but all the manufacturers have done is raised their prices by £5,000 meaning the cars are still way over priced. Would you pay US$45,000 for a plug in Prius? No, me neither - and that's the price AFTER the Government grant!

The car to watch with be the Renault Zoe later this year. If that flops them EV's are doomed in Europe.

 

Don't you mean fortunately people aren't stupid Wait maybe they are. Europeans have put up huge gas taxes and bought plenty of poluting diesels.

IMHO these cars appeal to people that want the technology, not the desire to produce less ghg. You would expect more of these people in Japan and the US. Europeans seem to prefer the established diesel tech.

There is also a vicious circle in europe, the fewer plug ins you buy, the more expensive they are, which means you will sell fewer.

They just may be bad for the next few years. With the financial crisis, I don't see people paying more for new car tech in Europe.

 

...not too much EV interest is consistent with what I saw on a recent Germany trip. Even Prius is rare w/ 60% diesel vehicles. The slowing solar era in Germany was not so much a green thing, rather the incentives were so huge so you made money doing solar, I was told.

 

well actually i think that western europeans think themselves very eco minded people.

However the European manufacturers and EU itself has managed to tied ecology with CO2 emissions and thus people think all these diesels are ecological. BMW for instance is 2nd rated Eco brand in Europe (Toyota #1) despite the fact that their diesels are a lot more polluting than EPA standards.

Toyota with 4% market share can not do much here... already 10% of their cars are hybrids in Europe. For Europe to become EV and Hybrid land, VW, BMW, Ford, Opel, MB have to offer hybrids, PHEVs and EVs at diesel competing prices.

 

Emphasis on 'financial-crisis' .... Yes - slowing purchases follows from slowing economy. Folks are less likely to buy ALL items ... especially high priced items, when you're struggling to just make ends meet. I'd like to see stat's on equally (high) priced items, and see if all other similarly priced goods aren't equally impacted. If so, then the article is not honest, because it focuses on sales of one item ... PHEV's.

 

How many people in America have bought an EV but NOT used it in high occupancy lanes? A low percentage I'm sure. It's no surprise the EV's were released first in California where such benefits are available. You also have much higher warranties on the hybrid and/or battery side than we get, though we get longer warranties on the entire car.

But the manufacturers haven't helped themselves. A £2,000/$3,200 price increase on the Leaf within days of it being released because they thought sales were up didn't help.

So we have $9 a gallon fuel and overpriced EV's too