Is there any Future for the Electric Cars?
The vast majority of the Americans and the British find themselves environmentally concerned and so they would willingly buy an electric car, however under one condition: it can’t be more expensive than a conventional one. At least, according to a survey carried out for the Financial Times.
The consumers from both countries also agreed, that their interest in buying battery-powered cars has primarily come from the idea of saving on fuel costs, which was more important than any environmental issue. Out of the group of people who said they would eventually pay more for the electric car, most would agree to pay only between $ 1,000 and $ 5,000 (or, alternatively, £ 1,000 and £ 5,000 in the UK) above the price of the conventional car. It seems that the citizens tend to lose the idealistic attitude the moment they take their finance into consideration.
The results of the survey clearly indicate that there is not much space for the carmakers to maneuver as far as the prices of the electric cars go, especially when the global economic downturn has left the customers more tight-fisted than ever.
Although there have been serious doubts if the electric cars stand a chance of becoming cars of the future, the governments of the US and the UK have spent enormous amounts of money for the promotional campaigns and special subsidies for the first buyers. It seems like the history repeats itself: when the manufacturers have launched first hybrid cars into the market, the customers were also unwilling to pay any more for lower-emission, more-efficient models like Toyota Prius, although this would enable them saving money on fuel in the long run. Instead, the customers would ignore the efficiency and choose similar, conventional cars which were just cheaper.
Even though the electric car may face bleak future, the manufacturers are ready to take the risk and plan to introduce some models into the market very soon. Leaf electric car, the new product of Nissan and Chevrolet Volt, manufactured by General Motors will be on sale by the end of this year. Then, it can be verified whether the early social interest in electric cars was just a temporary fashion or it will turn into recurrent habit.
This is the guest post written by the team of CarTruckTrader.com. Visit them online if you want to find some fuel-efficient cars for sale.
