Selling Neighborhood Electric Vehiclesinto the USA Automotive Market

摘要

It is difficult to sell new neighborhood electric vehicles (NEVs) into the USA automobile marketrnprimarily because the market is flooded with low priced, used NEVs. The market is flooded becausernthe USA’s “Big Three” automakers placed approximately 25,000 vehicles into a three-to-fivernthousand NEVs per year market beginning in 2001 and ending in September 2003. This action by thernBig Three automakers was a result of changes in the “California ZEV Mandate” rule, which allowedrnthem to accrue, for later use, four ZEV credits for each NEV placed into service in the time framernstated above. However, in order to place so many NEV into the market in such a short time, manyrnwere given away or sold at very low prices. With many of these NEVs now for sale in the used carrnmarket at very low prices, it is very difficult to sell new NEVs at a price that allows a NEV-maker tornmake a profit.rnDaimlerChrysler’s subsidiary and NEV-maker, Global Electric Motorcars, LLC (GEM), wasrnchallenged to make itself into a profitable business even during the current difficult NEV marketrnsituation. It developed a strategy to do this that included: 1) making its new 2005 model year NEVrnproducts superior to previous GEM models and other competitors; 2) establishing an outstandingrnGEM dealer system using DaimlerChrysler dealers selected from among their highest-rated dealers inrnthe best NEV market areas and; 3) offering on-site GEM service with a very short customer responsernturn-around time.rnIn spite of this difficult market situation, it is believed that NEV transportation will grow into a viablernand sustainable transportation business sector. This is true not only because NEVs provide arnconvenient and cost-effective transportation alternative in the right settings, but also due to the lowrnimpact that NEVs make on the environment, because they have no tail pipe emissions, and their usernleads to reduced petroleum consumption. This was verified in a mid-2003 survey of NEV users inrnCalifornia.