Comment Nissan Motor Company has priced its latest electric offering, the Leaf.
For the Japanese market, the vehicle will start at 3.76 million yen, or US$40,640. In the US, the vehicle is expected to start somewhere between $25,000 and $30,000.
It'll be interesting to see how this plays out.
No one should expect the first generation of electric cars to come in at a discount. But asking US consumers to part with $25,000 for a pure electric vehicle with a range of 100 miles, may be asking a bit much. Especially when a Toyota Prius will give you 50 mpg and cost you a lot less.
Granted, you still need to put gas in that Prius. But with that kind of impressive fuel economy, will it be worth the premium to go all electric?
Hard to say.
Certainly there's a loyal electric vehicle following that will likely put their environmental and technological needs ahead of cost. This holds true with just about any new environmentally-friendly product or new technology. The question is, will it be enough to sustain the earliest entries into the EV market? This was a question many analysts asked when the first hybrids came out more than a decade ago. Quite a few brushed them off as nothing more than a flash in the pan. And we've seen how that's turned out.
So far, Toyota (NYSE:TM) has sold more than one million Toyota and Lexus hybrids in the US, and leads 75 percent of the US hybrid market. The company actually announced last year that it plans on building one million hybrids a year by 2020.
Of course, this kind of momentum is not built solely on the environmental needs and concerns of consumers. Let's be honest here. When gas prices go up, Priuses get sold. Hell, back when gas hit $4.00 a gallon, consumers were actually paying above sticker price.
Point is, environmental needs can certainly provide early (and limited) momentum, but high gas prices will always kick things into overdrive.
So while I don't expect to see a run on the Nissan Leaf in its first year, I wouldn't count this vehicle out over the course of this decade - assuming the company sticks to its guns and focuses heavily on price reductions and increased efficiency. And I would say this holds true for any manufacturer bringing an electric or plug-in hybrid electric vehicle to market. If you'd like to see a full list of these manufacturers, click here.
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Jeff
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