The Homa Files

TakeAway: Like many new, innovative products, there is an adoption chasm between the early adopters and the early majority.

While the new Chevy Volt has already demonstrated appeal to the early tech adopters, there are some issues that could spell trouble.

One, the short battery range doesn’t really offer a complete solution to eliminating the need for gasoline.

Two, once you have exhausted the battery, it’s just another car.  Until the battery technology improves, the “killer application” seems to be lacking.

 * * * * *

Excerpted from NPR, “Electric Cars Steal the Spotlight at Auto Show,” by Sonari Glinton, January 14, 2011

When the North American International Auto Show opens in Detroit on Friday, there’s going to be electricity in the air. …

… the star of the show is the Chevy Volt, the electric car with a backup gas engine. It won the top prize — the 2011 North American Car of the Year. …

GM has high hopes that the Volt will be adopted by a mainstream audience.

“Today a lot of our customers are early tech adopters — typically the first on the block to have an iPhone or an iPad,” says Tony DiSalle, the head of marketing for the Chevy Volt. He thinks those numbers will improve over time.

“The most important thing is to get consumers — mass-market consumers — to understand the benefits of the Volt,” DiSalle says.

GM expects to sell about 10,000 Volts this year. In 2012, the company will ramp up production to about 45,000 cars. But even that figure is small compared with the more than 2.2 million cars and trucks that GM’s four brands sold in 2010. …

One of the barriers to the adoption of the electric car is a phrase that keeps coming up at the auto show — range anxiety. Many of the cars on display can only travel under electric power for short ranges. Analysts say that until the big car companies can conquer consumer fears of running out of charge, electric vehicles will remain on the fringes.

“Look, the electrification of the American fleet is not going to happen overnight,” says Bob Lutz, who retired as vice chairman of GM in May.

… He says electrification will be a gradual process, predicting that it will take until 2025 for electric vehicles to account for 10 percent to 15 percent of the overall market. …

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This entry was posted on January 31, 2011 at 6:14 am and is filed under Autos - Travel, Mktg - Crossing the Chasm, Mktg - Product & Innovation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.