Electric Vehicles
If You Build It, Will They Come?
DETROIT—Plug-in hybrids are coming to showrooms, but officials from two of America’s “Big Three” automakers cautioned that hurdles remain in convincing consumers to buy one, while utilities are concerned about the impact of charging.
Ohio-based Myers Motors makes the all-electric, single-seater NmG, seen at right. (Photo By: Michael W. Kahn)
“We’ve placed big bets in this area, and it’s something we feel very, very good about. But there are some challenges,” Bill Ford Jr., executive chairman of Ford Motor Co., told The Business of Plugging In conference, held here Oct. 19–21.
“This isn’t just an R&D experiment for us,” he said. The company’s plans include an electric Transit Connect fleet van next year and PHEVs for consumers in 2012.
“Will the customers want these vehicles?” Ford asked. While noting that the question comes up with any new model, he called it “particularly germane” here. “Customers don’t want to be panicked when they get their car, about where and when they can recharge their vehicle. We have to make it easy for them,” he said.
Ford noted that pure electric vehicles have limits on how far they can go without recharging, so he envisions urban areas—“places where the vehicle doesn’t have to go more than 100 miles a day”—as ideal spots for those. For everyone else, Ford sees a PHEV in your future. “They certainly use a small amount of gasoline, but what they do then is they eliminate the ‘range anxiety,’” he said. “And they allow customers, if they want, to drive from California to Detroit and not worry about it.”