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LA Times: Nissan Leaf far outselling Chevrolet Volt

Discussion in 'Nissan/Infiniti Hybrids and EVs' started by hill, Jul 19, 2011.

  1. Corwyn

    Corwyn Energy Curmudgeon

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    It is ok, if you don't know what the phrases 'winner take all' and 'zero-sum' mean, but it would aid communication if you found out before answering .
     
  2. evnow

    evnow Active Member

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    The important thing to note about cannibalizing sales is that better that than losing market share to someone else.

    PHV numbers Toyota suggested is 16K in 2012. Looks like both Volt & Leaf will be selling more than that in 2012. (Rav 4EV number suggested is just 2,600)

    There is another important thing. Plugin tax credits are good for 200k vehicles. Does Toyota want to use that on low ev miles PHV or on EVs, where they would really need them ?
     
  3. hill

    hill High Fiber Member

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    Valid point - and considering auto manufacturers realize they need clean cars to offset their bread & butter (and world economy crushing) cars like big SUV's & trucks, the only way manufacturers can continue building land barges is by offsetting their bottom-of-the-toilet CAFE scores with things like EV's. CAFE penalty costs on fuel guzzlers eat into land barge profits, because CAFE rules require fines to be tacked onto poor CAFE mpg fleet scores. Selling clean cars so you can sell guzzlers seems like a poor motive for doing the right thing.

    You gotta have a price low enough for people to swallow, in order to sell tons of PHEV's. Some say that $40K + price is too high to sell in high numbers. If true, then CAFE penalties will inflate fleet costs (profits) to the point that big SUV/truck costs will be unaffordable. Then what.