“Europe’s electric car business has now also cottoned on to that face-saving idea”
Electric cars may use cutting edge technology, but sales in Europe so far reveal that manufacturers of these new-fangled machines are relying on time-worn and traditional marketing methods when buyers balk; dump them on car rental companies.
On the face of it, the latest data for Western Europe shows a healthy, 39 per cent increase in sales, although the vehicles still have a barely measurable market share of 0.23 per cent. 3,785 electric vehicles were sold in the first two months of 2013 compared with 2,723 in the same period of 2012, according to the Automotive Industrial Data (AID) newsletter.
But, this sharp uptick unmasks an unfortunate reality.
“Want to identify slow-selling models in today’s car business? Take a close look at the car pool of most daily car rental fleets and perhaps most telling, fast turnover car rental fleets at major airports in particular. Some, if not all of the pioneers in Europe’s electric car business have now also cottoned on to that face-saving idea,” AID editor Peter Schmidt said in his latest newsletter.
Schmidt said new car sharing schemes are becoming useful dumping grounds for battery-only cars which manufacturers can’t sell. Citroen of France has set up a European multi-city rental operation to dump its C-Zero battery only cars. Mercedes’ has a worldwide car2go car-sharing operation, and that might be where the 6,000 electric Smart cars planned for production in 2013 end up.
“The way things are progressing on the German electric car scene, and with few willing buyers, the early pioneers of volume built electric cars are left with little choice but to dump the vast majority into their trendy inner-city car-sharing operations,” Schmidt said.
An entry-level electric Smart 2-seater costs the equivalent of $31,000 in Germany after taxes, compared with $13,500 for the gasoline version. That helps to explain the lack of enthusiasm from private buyers. Germany doesn’t offer any financial incentives to electric buyers, unlike France, Britain and the U.S.
Renault of France has just launched a new battery-only saloon, the Zoe, and this is supposed to persuade Europeans to embrace the concept. Zoe sales over the next few months will show if private buyers can be persuaded to part with their money.
Meanwhile AID quoted a Renault spokesman saying that a big surge in electric car sales in France in February to 648 cars was helped by 440 new Zoes, which are all either dealer demonstrators or press fleet vehicles.
Neil Winton – April 15, 2013
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