4. EVSE prices to drop
Electric vehicle charging equipment prices are still rather high, as such equipment presently is produced by smaller-sized manufacturers. But as the market continues to mature, global electronic companies will enter the field, and such equipment will be produced in large quantity, driving the price down.
“Basic electric vehicle supply equipment will quickly become a commodity. EVSE (electric vehicle supply equipment) prices will fall by 37% through 2017 as costs are driven lower by competition from large electronics companies as well as volume production,” said John Gartner, senior analyst at Pike Research, a marketing and consulting firm, in a 2011 press release.
Tesla vs. competitors
While General Motors, Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F), and other major companies may be making headlines with their new plug-in hybrid cars, Tesla has been selling pure electric cars to the general public since 2008.
Tesla’s cars have no traditional combustion engines. Plug-in hybrids rely primarily on their electric engines within short ranges, but a combustion engine will kick in when the car needs extra power or the battery runs out of juice.
In January, Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) sold five times as many hybrid vehicles as it did the year before.Bloomberg reported that January was a record month for Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) hybrid sales. Around 6,000 Ford hybrids were sold in January this year, compared with about 1,200 in January 2012. With such a start, Ford executives anticipate that its 2013 hybrid sales total will blow away its current annual high of 35,496, set in 2010.
Beyond rising sales, two bits of data concerning hybrid purchases are getting Ford particularly excited: as per The Detroit News, a high percentage (70%) of Fusion Hybrid purchases come from “conquest buyers” (consumers who previously drove another car brand, not a Ford); and Fusion Hybrid purchasers tend to be slightly younger than the typical hybrid owner.
Meanwhile, General Motors Company (NYSE:GM) CEO Dan Akerson said that the company is working on a couple of new all-electric cars, one of which will have a 200-mile range. General Motors’ Chevy Volt, a plug-in hybrid, fared better last year with over 23,000 units sold in the United States.
Although consumers are curious about plug-in vehicles like the Chevy Volt, when the time for purchasing comes, the consensus is that the vast majority of buyers will keep on turning to cars that are powered mainly by gasoline.
According to a J.D. Power survey published last year, the majority of consumers (71%) indicated that the next car they buy or lease would be a regular, old-fashioned gas-powered vehicle. Almost one-quarter (23%), meanwhile, said they’d be most likely to purchase a conventional hybrid such as the Toyota Prius or Ford Fusion Hybrid. Only 4% pointed to the plug-in hybrid (Chevy Volt) as the car they’d buy next, and just 2% said their next automobile would be a purely battery-powered vehicle like the Nissan Leaf or Tesla Model S.
Anindya Batabyal has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Ford, General Motors, and Tesla Motors . The Motley Fool owns shares of Ford and Tesla Motors.
