Inflammatory much? Of course we do. Quick digression: Bain & Co is one of those international consultancies whose website doesn’t provide a client list, or any exact idea of what it does for them. Reading between the lines, like McKinsey & Company, they probably specialize in firing people (e.g., “Where appropriate, we work with clients to make it [increasing “value”] happen—which may mean fundamentally changing the company.”) The connection between Bain and a study of potential EV ownership is left unspoken. Looks like the usual client angling to me. OK, so, Business Week reports that Bain reports that EV intenders are rich bastards. “The survey of 4,000 people in eight countries, including the U.S., China, Japan and Germany, finds that high-income buyers are ready to buy all-electric vehicles as a second vehicle for short trips. ‘Consumers would be buying now if there were products,’ says Gregor Matthies, a Munich-based partner at Bain who specializes in the auto industry.” Did they only survey high income buyers? Not specified. So which theoretical EVs are we talking about?
“The Bain survey finds that customers are eager to buy an electric car from familiar names such as Toyota, Daimler, Volkswagen or BMW. (Respondents weren’t asked about any of the U.S. carmakers.) ‘The consumers are expecting trusted brands to deliver these products,’ says Matthies.”
And here we go into that strange journalistic territory where you can’t tell if the text is the author’s opinion, the subject’s opinion or the author’s opinion of the subject’s opinion. Or, more likely, a re-written press release.
“The other challenge for carmakers will be to differentiate their products from competitors. Electric motors are much less complicated to build than internal combustion engines and require only a simple gearbox. They are inherently quiet and peppy. The qualities that have sold BMWs, Lexus and Mercedes won’t be as unique anymore.
“So design may be the key competitive factor. Some automakers may decide to form partnerships with companies known for superb product design. In fact, the Bain survey asked people whether they would buy a car from Apple. Only 21% of Europeans said they would, vs. 48% who would buy an electric car from BMW. Still, Apple’s score was surprisingly high for a company that has never made a motor vehicle. Existing carmakers can’t take it for granted that they’ll own the market.”
And how’s this for prevarication?
“The Bain study suggests that, after many false starts, the era of electric cars may finally be on the horizon.”
Like the electric car hasn’t been on the horizon since cars began…
@ RF
Reading between the lines, like McKinsey & Company, they probably specialize in firing people.
Inflammatory much?
I’m sorry to say I can’t follow your logic, RF.
Why poser? Because they would only use their electric cars for short trips? Would it be preferable for rich people to buy SUVs for short trips? Actually, I think short trips is what e-cars are best at.
Why bastard? Is bastard the new poser, or vice-versa? I’m confused.
Where’s the eco-friendly electricity going to come from that will power all these electric cars over short trips?
Will somebody please answer that question.
This is a lot of weird, wild stuff. Some of them look like they could get knocked over like bowling pins in a side crash.
@ Rod Panhard
For one thing, a lot of electric capacity is idle at night, so it would be easy to charge them then. Also, running cars on electricity is a lot more efficient per BTU than running them on gasoline. In the US, you could probably charge all the putative buyers’ cars at night without straining capacity.
In the near term, I can see the EV being a toy for early-adopter types. Unlike consumer electronic toys that appeal to the same sort, however, this toy will be relatively expensive. Thus only those encumbered by excess disposable income will be customers. Those people tend, on the whole, to indulge in other excessive consumption behaviors – yachts, lots of flying about the planet, big houses, etc. Thus they are “posers” in that the green behavior evidenced by their EV purchase is not congruous with their otherwise gluttonous existence.
Why poser? Because they would only use their electric cars for short trips? Would it be preferable for rich people to buy SUVs for short trips?
I think the theory is that EVs are discretionary purchases by people who want to make a statement. People who aren’t rich will buy one or two more versatile “normal” cars, and non-poseurs will take transit, ride a bike or walk.
I’d like an EV. I’d like a Smart, too, but I don’t have the luxury of having two or more vehicles to fall back on if I need to go further than a few miles or carry more than two people. If I only need to go EV range and don’t have the mutually-exclusive kid-and-cargo that prevents such, I hitch up my bike trailer and pedal to the store.
I think that if the threw some of the millions going to EV development into sustainable urban planning (ie, reducing sprawl, creating more short-distance commercial hubs) we’d not only address a lot of the issues around fuel use, but lessen the need for expensive public transit as well.
Wow, wealthy people are early adopters?
How would we know anything if it wasn’t for strategic consultants?
http://www.thinkgeek.com/images/products/zoom/posters-consulting.jpg
Tesla finally makes sense. They don’t want to be a car company, they want to be bought out by a car company.
I believe “rich posers” in context refers to people who aren’t really all that environmentally conscious, but who want to be seen as being so.
However, if they regularly use the car for trips they would otherwise make, and don’t joyride in the thing, then they will likely be helping the environment, AND by being early adopters, allow the tech to go mainstream.
Personally, I think the word poser has gotten over used and no longer carries a message well. It’s kind of like a dirty word in that it isn’t specific, but it shocks the reader. Seriously, exchange “posers” with just about any variant of “^%$#heads” or “@$#%wads”. See what I mean?
I would suggest striking it from a writer’s vocabulary along with “very” and “good”. Of course, I am just a reader, so what do I know.
RetardedSparks : …only those encumbered by excess disposable income will be customers. Those people tend, on the whole, to indulge in other excessive consumption behaviors – yachts, lots of flying about the planet, big houses, etc. Thus they are “posers” in that the green behavior evidenced by their EV purchase is not congruous with their otherwise gluttonous existence.
Al Gore?
«Wow, wealthy people are early adopters?»
++
And now you are telling me that people who pay $100,000 for a Tesla plus $3,000 for its plug cable are high-income and buying it a second, third or whatever vehicle for short trips only?
Who knew?
yup – no new ‘news’ here…
if you really want efficient, etc…
use an electric bicycle / moped
I think they sampled Segway owners.
Hey, how come the Banana-head Stay-Puft Marshmellow Man isn’t in the photo gallery ?
I know a guy who knows a guy who knows a guy…
Heard about this one marketing group study, interviewing potential customers for the G-Whiz. Not a pie-in-the-sky we-promise-it’ll-be-ready-in-ten-years electric car, but one already on sale, with a radio and cabin air.
Obviously, they knew the poor folk couldn’t afford it… obviously, poor folk would be out buying Aveos or taking the bus, but they figured rich people who own SUVs and have a need to go just two or three blocks to the supermarket would be an easy target.
And they were right. People were put off by the terrible build quality, but when they heard about the low running costs, they figured “hey, it’s better than using a Golf Cart”…
When the pricing was announced, jaws dropped.
One soft-target “rich guy” just happened to be an accountant (hey, you don’t get rich not knowing how to count) and whipped out a calculator on the spot. When he was done, it wasn’t pretty.
Turns out even rich guys know that you’d have to drive an awfully long way in one of these to save money on gas. The only true market for EVs is tinkerers, greenies and corporations (make decent factory patrol vehicles, quiet).
Now, three years after the importation project was announced to us in the press… and two years or so after that market research was conducted… we still haven’t heard head or tail of it…
I’ve driven a few electrics. My dad actually has one he uses for short trips… Price of a supermini, but it has no AC, no radio, an open chassis and the crashworthiness of a golf-cart.
EVs aren’t impossible to build, but the cost is staggering… I know a guy working on electric mass transport, and from talking to him, the cost of the batteries alone could buy you an entire Euro II diesel drivetrain with ten times the range and infinitely better performance.
Suffice to say, he hasn’t sold many of his electric buses. Haven’t heard from him in a while, either.
In the late 1990’s I was in an ancient barbershop waiting to be served and some commotion was going on at the front entrance.
I went to investigate and several guys were standing around staring at a Ford Fiesta. It turned out to be an electric vehicle that was owned by a local wealthy man. It had cost 30,000$. He was married to a New York model that cost considerably more.
@ no_slushy
You just love that thinkgeek link…