Jerry Hirsch of the LA Times wrote an article published in my newspaper today, titled "Study: Electric vehicles still too pricey, poorly marketed", which says that the sales of electric vehicles is falling off. This is according to a J. D. Power and Associates study of EV ownership. So far this year Nissan has sold 6,800 Leafs (down 16% from last year), Honda has only leased 48 electric Fits, Mitsubishi has sold fewer than 500 of its MiEV mini-cars and Coda Automotive has refused to say how its sales are going. Tesla Motors has sold fewer than 300 Model S cars to date.
Meanwhile, Toyota hybrids have been selling well, with sales of 500,000 cars so far this year, accounting for 3.5% of U.S. auto sales.
The J. D. Power's study reports that "EV owners report an average monthly increase in their utility bill of just $18 to recharge their vehicle's battery - which is significantly less than the $147 that they would typically pay for gasoline during the same period of time". The report estimates that it takes about 6.5 years to recoup the additional $10K that an EV costs over a similar IC vehicle. The article concludes with a quote by Neal Oddes, senior director of the green practice at J. D. Power, that "The payback period is longer than most consumers keep their vehicle. The bottom line is that the price has to come down, which requires a technological quantum leap to reduce the battery price".
On the other hand, the December issue of Consumer Reports, on page 63, reports that "The Nissan Leaf had an excellent showing (in their vehicle reliability survey) and was the most reliable Nissan in the lineup. The Chevrolet Volt has been above average in our past two surveys. And Toyota's new Prius Plug-in earned a top reliability score in this year's survey."
