Posts Tagged by Mitsubishi i-miEV
French Aggressively Promoting Electric Transportation
| July 6, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Electric Vehicles |
I’ve often mentioned that I admire the French for their vision in electric transportation and their aggression in dealing with air quality as a public health and safety issue. Here’s an interesting article in which the government has run afoul of the private sector by subsidizing EV car sharing programs; the car rental industry claims this represents unfair competition. They have a point there.
Notice the many different European EV products on the roads. The Peugeot iOn, e.g., is essentially a Mitsubishi i-MiEV, a terrific little commuter car, perfect for urban environments. It’s coming to the US soon (they claim), but there’s no time like the present.
What’s Wrong Inside Toyota?
| July 29, 2010 | Posted by Craig Shields under Electric Vehicles |
I spoke with a couple of the people promoting the 2012 release of the Prius plug-in hybrid yesterday at the 2010 Plug-In show. Gosh, this seems like a strange concept. Its all-electric range? 13 miles. The net effect for the typical customer? A bit better gas mileage. “This is what Prius customers want – a more efficient Prius,” one guy told me.
I was incredulous. Maybe they want that now, pal. But do you honestly think they’re going to want that two years from now, when they can have a LEAF, an I-MiEV, a Mini E, a Volt, or half a dozen other EVs of various sizes and types? You’re going to ask them to go through the exercise of plugging their car in, just to get slightly better gas mileage?
This is a truly terrible idea. I have to think something has gone terribly off the rails there. Unless they make a major change, I predict that Toyota’s decade 2005 – 2015 will be the biggest single meltdown in automotive history.
The Electric Vehicle Adoption Curve
| August 11, 2009 | Posted by Craig Shields under Electric Vehicles |
More from Alex C:
Consumer research indicates only 5% of American’s are true “greenies.” Remember that most Americans do NOT believe in the global warming scare and that it is a large political war….they don’t care…they will buy EVs if it adds value to their life. Only for a few percent of buyers will that value be related to the “environment.”
Personally, I’m not sure about this. Looking at my own piece (Brass Tack #1) carefully, I see that I equivocate on this myself – even in one short essay. Certainly in bad economic times, people are less likely to take actions for the common good if their personal interests suffer in the process. And you’re right that the oil companies have, incredible as it may seem, succeeded in casting public doubt on the concept of global warming. However, I have to think that my “mink coat” analogy will stand up to some degree. And wait until you see the compelling ads that come out for the Nissan Leaf, the Mitsubishi i-miEV, and the others when they are available in the US. I have to think they’ll make Hummer drivers look pretty shameful; if I were writing those ads, I’d have a field day on this subject.
