Are Electric Cars Losing Their Spark?

A year after the first two plug-in electric cars from major makers went on sale, buyers appear put off by high sticker prices — even with federal subsidies — and, for the moment, by more-stable gasoline prices.

The Nissan Leaf and Chevrolet Volt also have had their own issues. For owners of the Leaf, and other electric-only vehicles, there still are relatively few places to plug in and recharge away from home, limiting use. And the Volt, which has a backup gas engine to run a generator for extended range, is under the shadow of a government safety probe of why its big lithium-ion battery pack could catch fire days or even weeks after suffering severe crash damage.

Meanwhile, some start-up makers of electric cars, including the Think City car and the egg-shaped Aptera, have gone bust. Others have hit delays in their efforts to get plug-in cars in front of buyers. Even some major automakers have had hiccups developing new plug-ins.

Electric cars on the way to showrooms also face stiffer competition from conventional cars and hybrids that not only are cheaper, but also have gotten markedly more fuel-efficient as automakers work to meet tightening federal fuel-economy rules. All these problems amount to some big bumps to President Obama's stated goal of one million electrified vehicles (including advanced hybrids) on the road by 2015.

The high-tech Volt had narrow interest from car buyers overall, even before the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's probe into battery fires began in November. About one percent of general consumers said in a July survey that they were willing to consider buying a Volt, a figure that fell to 0.6 percent in December after reports of the safety probe. Among those in the market immediately for a new car, Volt interest fell from 4.3 percent to 2.1 percent over the same period.

GM had hoped to sell 10,000 Volts by the end of 2011. Just 6,142 Volts had been sold through November.

Nissan has sold 8,720 Leaf electric sedans through November, and the company has said it is satisfied with first-year results that were hampered by early delivery problems that since appear ironed out. But the combined sales of those two models represent just 0.1 percent of the 11.5 million new car and truck sales in the U.S. through November. While Nissan and Chevrolet were delivering limited numbers of their new electrics, Toyota sold almost 120,000 of its 50 miles-per-gallon Prius gas-electric hybrids, despite the March tsunami in Japan that disrupted production.

The Leaf, which the government says can go 73 miles between charges, has a sticker price of $36,050 including destination charges. Volt, which goes 25 miles or more on the plug-in charge before the gas engine kicks in for more juice, is priced at $39,995.

Many buyers of either car qualify for the federal $7,500 tax credit, as well as more tax subsidies in some states. And they will get the savings down the road for using plug-in electricity at a fraction of the price of gasoline. But consumers apparently can't get past the fact that a Chevrolet Volt, for example, compares in size and features with the Chevy Cruze, which starts at about $17,000.

A Deloitte survey indicated that gasoline would have to hit $5 a gallon before consumers would take a serious look at electrics; yet another major hurdle to mainstream acceptance.

Despite lackluster interest, more plug-ins from major makers are on the way. Mitsubishi delivered the first of its electric cars earlier this month, a $28,840 four-door called simply the i. Ford is launching a $39,995 Focus Electric in the first half of 2012 and the C-Max plug-in small van sometime in the second half of the year. Toyota will introduce the $32,000 plug-in version of the Prius in fourteen launch states.

There is no ignoring some of the setbacks for the industry this year, aside from the Chevy Volt fires:

Think, an electric-car start-up that had planned to make vehicles in Elkhart, IN, filed for bankruptcy protection. The U.S. unit created to market the small car based on one sold in Europe from a factory in Norway was backed by Silicon Valley financiers.
Aptera, makers of an egg-shaped electric vehicle on struts that looked a little bit like a rolling Cessna, announced it would liquidate. Executives say they were unable to find financing needed for the Southern California-based company to qualify for federal loans.
Fisker Automotive raised the price again of its sleek plug-in extended-range Karma. It's $102,000, up from about $80,000 originally. Because the batteries limited space inside the car, it is classed by the government as a subcompact.
Perhaps even more damaging to Fisker, on December 30 according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Fisker is recalling 239 of its 2012 Karma sedans, the majority still at dealerships, because a misaligned battery part could cause coolant to leak and result in a fire.

The recall comes one month after NHTSA opened a formal investigation into fire risks in the Volt. GM has remained adamant about the Volt being safe, but the Fisker recall could prompt more Volt owners to take part in the Detroit-based automaker’s offer for a free trade-in until a solution is found.

Fisker is replacing the battery packs in all customer vehicles, numbering about forty, and opting to conduct a longer fix for vehicles still at dealerships that doesn't call for a whole battery replacement. Fisker's battery producer, A123 Systems, which has also partnered with GM, said officials "determined that some of the battery packs we produce for Fisker Automotive could have a potential safety issue relating to the battery cooling system."

Another California-based start-up, Tesla Motors, is ending production of its pioneering $109,000 electric sports car and won't be ready to start selling its next all-electric model, the $57,400-to-$87,400 Model S sedan with up to a 300-mile range, until summer. There are already more than 7,000 reservations for the luxury-oriented Model S, says Ricardo Reyes, a vice president.

Meanwhile, seven major automakers announced their support for a single rapid charging protocol in an effort to achieve simplicity for owners and manufacturers alike.

Audi, BMW, Daimler, Ford, GM, Porsche, and Volkswagen have signed on to the Combined Charging System, which was announced at the Society of German Engineers’ fifteenth International Electronic Systems for Motor Vehicles Conference in mid-October. All their future EVs will feature a single plug capable of one-phase AC charging, rapid three-phase AC charging, at-home DC charging, or ultra-fast DC charging at public charging stations.

Additionally, the automakers agreed that future EVs would rely on the HomePlug Green PHY specification for smart grid communication. That protocol supports 10 Mbit/s data transfer over power lines, and can interface with smart meters, home appliances, and home thermostats, paving the way for off-peak charging incentives and universal smartphone apps that remotely set the climate of a home and a car.

With a universal plug, manufacturers can simplify supply chains, achieving efficiency and lower costs by sourcing and installing the same plug across model lines and brands. Designers no longer have to find out ways to outfit AC and DC charging outlets in a single panel.