Despite tiny market share, electric cars get big automaker backing
Admit it. You’ve thought about buying an electric car. If but for a fleeting moment, you considered the possibilities: zero tailpipe emissions, no more oil changes, no more tuneups. Cheap fuel. And it seems pretty cool.
Then, if you’re like most people, you set the idea aside.
That disconnect is apparent in the United States, where all-electric vehicles account for less than one per cent of new car sales. With gasoline prices low and stable, historically gas-guzzling pickup trucks, sport utility vehicles and crossovers are what Americans want to buy.
Yet at the Los Angeles Auto Show, which opens to the public Friday, a host of automakers are expected to unveil new all-electric models or electric concept cars.
And electric car leader Tesla is set to hold a party outdoors, where its all-electric Model X will be hooked to an Airstream trailer to conjure the long-distance travel possibilities provided by Tesla’s Supercharger battery network.
So, on one hand, the market share for electric cars is minuscule. On the other, big automakers are aggressively pushing their electric cars. What gives?
“There’s the market of what the market wants, and there’s the market of what the federal government wants,” said auto industry veteran Bob Lutz, who championed the creation of the Chevy Volt. “And the two markets are miles apart.”
It’s up to the automakers to pull them together. Stricter U.S. government mandates on fuel economy are fast approaching.
To meet them, “Everybody is going to have to do major electrification,” Lutz said. Even if they lose money doing it.
The high cost of batteries means it still costs more to build an electric car than one with a traditional combustion engine. That’s a big reason the electric car market share is so low.
To meet the mandates, carmakers calibrate how many electrics and plug-in hybrids they must sell, and set prices accordingly. A trickle of e-cars is becoming a stream as the deadline draws near.