Are EV's losing their buzz?

[jmueller065]

Another negative article from The Detroit News:
http://www.detroitnews.com/story/business/autos/2015/04/20/electric-vehicles-lose-buzz/26050135/

I deconstruct it here:
http://jamiegeek.myevblog.com/2015/04/20/evs-losing-their-buzz/

 

[hybridbear]

Good write up.

Lets pick this one apart shall we: some points from the article:

Sales of new electric cars and hybrids, according to automotive research and shopping site Edmunds.com, are at their lowest level since 2011

According to Inside EVs total Plug-In sales for the first 3 months of 2015 are 23339 units, for the first 3 months of 2014 they are 22671, for 2013 they are 17963, for 2012 they are 6698 and finally for 2011 we get 1662 total units. I do see a trend here but it isn’t what the News article says it is…where did Edmunds get its numbers? (Now it is possible that plug-in sales in the first few weeks of April have taken a complete nose dive but that would have to be a huge nose-dive to see the results they are implying above.) I did search around the Edmunds website but found no news article that could have been the source for the News one. I did find this, however, interesting.

The above statement is qualified by talking about the Leaf and Volt. If we look at just the Leaf and Volt numbers we see a similar trend overall that we saw with the total yearly numbers: 5959 (2015), 8790 (2014), 7783 (2013), 5648 (2012). Note the lower number for 2015–perhaps this is the whole reason for the News article? Not stated at all in the news article is the fact that Chevrolet will be selling an all new version of the Volt later in 2015 and thus the current Volt’s sales are depressed due to people waiting for the new one (and hence there are a ton of sales going on for the old Volt to clear it off of dealer lots).

I think your numbers might not match here because they're including hybrid sales. Prius sales have been dropping a lot lately and since the Prius is the only hybrid that sells significant volumes it has a big impact on the total number of hybrid sales.

 

[jmueller065]

I think your numbers might not match here because they're including hybrid sales. Prius sales have been dropping a lot lately and since the Prius is the only hybrid that sells significant volumes it has a big impact on the total number of hybrid sales.

Who is including hybrid sales? Inside EVs doesn't; only plug-ins (e.g. vehicles with a plug which does include the Energie cars and the Volt). If the article is including hybrids then that is another stroke against the writer: To make his case he has to include more vehicles than what is usually considered a 'plug-in'.

 

[hybridbear]

I think your numbers might not match here because they're including hybrid sales. Prius sales have been dropping a lot lately and since the Prius is the only hybrid that sells significant volumes it has a big impact on the total number of hybrid sales.

Who is including hybrid sales? Inside EVs doesn't; only plug-ins (e.g. vehicles with a plug which does include the Energie cars and the Volt). If the article is including hybrids then that is another stroke against the writer: To make his case he has to include more vehicles than what is usually considered a 'plug-in'.

The quote you posted from the article says:

Sales of new electric cars and hybrids, according to automotive research and shopping site Edmunds.com, are at their lowest level since 2011

 

[jmueller065]

Hmm didn't read that line too closely! LOL Even still it just shows that the writer had an idea for the article already in his head and just looked for confirming data..

 

[twscrap]

There have been a few articles like this lately. On one of the other ones that I read it was clear that they were cherry picking just the March EV sales data.

 

[hybridbear]

Here's another article:
http://www.theverge.com/2015/4/21/8456231/electric-cars-hybrids-trading-in-for-gas-suvs-edmunds

This author somewhat challenges the assertion by Edmunds, and at the very least, questions the sense of anyone who would trade an EV for a gas guzzling SUV just because gas prices are low now.

 

[hybridbear]

This one is also pretty negative: http://247wallst.com/autos/2015/04/22/hybrid-electric-car-sales-crumble-as-gasoline-prices-remain-low/

 

[hybridbear]

Today GCR did a response piece: http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1097915_hey-media-electric-cars-arent-hybrids-the-difference-matters

 

[jmueller065]

Another critical article:
http://cleantechnica.com/2015/04/24/is-edmunds-being-careless-or-nasty/