The Model X: SUVs can be sexy. (Tesla Motors) |
Connecticut, with a long history as a car-maker (remember Pope and Locomobile!), is continuing its investigation of the cutting-edge electric vehicle. Somebody had to form an outfit called “Connecticut Electric Car Company,” and it turns out to have been Edward Ingalls, who announced the charger supplier as a division of Newington Electric last summer. It’s putting in the stations for Connecticut’s GM dealers, which are featuring the plug-in hybrid Chevrolet Volt. Have you noticed there’s more of them on our roads lately?
As the Norwich Bulletin reported, Connecticut Light & Power is working with four towns on installing charging stations, and 20 others are likely to join. CL&P may have trouble keeping the lights on, but it’s ahead of the curve with EVs. CL&P President Jeff Butler says, “We’ve worked hard to make Connecticut an early market for electric vehicles.” It makes sense, because Connecticut has the highest gas prices in the continental U.S. Electricity rates are high, too, but your operating cost for a plug-in car will be something like a sixth of running a gas vehicle.
Unfortunately, EVs still have a fairly high cost premium, so it will take time for a return on investment. Cutting the cost will mean dramatically reducing battery prices, and that’s very likely to happen in the next few years. Right now, you can’t buy an electric for less than $30,000, though a $7,500 federal tax credit takes out the sting somewhat. The cheapest electric car is the Mitsubishi I, known as the I-MiEV in Japan and elsewhere. It comes to the Northeast in April, and the entry-level model will be $21,625 after the tax credit.
But getting our friends and neighbors in Connecticut to buy electric cars is about more than dollars and cents. The vehicles have to build excitement. The best automaker to do that so far is Tesla Motors, which really caught the zeitgeist with the Model X crossover it unveiled last week. Based on the platform of the Model S sedan that debuts later this year, the X is the most curvaceous SUV ever, with unique “falcon doors” that fold up and allow easy access to the second and third row seats. Yes, it’s a seven seater.
The X isn’t cheap, from $60,000 to $100,000, so it won’t have a huge mass market (maybe 15,000 sales in 2014, its first year), but the sheer audacity of the thing has stimulated interest in Tesla generally. According to the company, it had $40 million in advance orders on the day the car was revealed. That same day, the Model X was the third-most searched term on Google, and traffic to the company’s website went up 2,800 percent. Two thirds of all visitors were new, and reservations for the Model S were also up 30 percent — proof that creating buzz is a tonic for the whole product line.
Expect to see both the Model S and Model X in the leafy driveways of Greenwich and Westport hedge fund millionaires, where they’ll increase awareness of the brand and stimulate interest in Tesla’s truly mass-market car — a forthcoming popularly priced compact due in two years.
As the Norwich Bulletin reported, Connecticut Light & Power is working with four towns on installing charging stations, and 20 others are likely to join. CL&P may have trouble keeping the lights on, but it’s ahead of the curve with EVs. CL&P President Jeff Butler says, “We’ve worked hard to make Connecticut an early market for electric vehicles.” It makes sense, because Connecticut has the highest gas prices in the continental U.S. Electricity rates are high, too, but your operating cost for a plug-in car will be something like a sixth of running a gas vehicle.
Unfortunately, EVs still have a fairly high cost premium, so it will take time for a return on investment. Cutting the cost will mean dramatically reducing battery prices, and that’s very likely to happen in the next few years. Right now, you can’t buy an electric for less than $30,000, though a $7,500 federal tax credit takes out the sting somewhat. The cheapest electric car is the Mitsubishi I, known as the I-MiEV in Japan and elsewhere. It comes to the Northeast in April, and the entry-level model will be $21,625 after the tax credit.
But getting our friends and neighbors in Connecticut to buy electric cars is about more than dollars and cents. The vehicles have to build excitement. The best automaker to do that so far is Tesla Motors, which really caught the zeitgeist with the Model X crossover it unveiled last week. Based on the platform of the Model S sedan that debuts later this year, the X is the most curvaceous SUV ever, with unique “falcon doors” that fold up and allow easy access to the second and third row seats. Yes, it’s a seven seater.
The X isn’t cheap, from $60,000 to $100,000, so it won’t have a huge mass market (maybe 15,000 sales in 2014, its first year), but the sheer audacity of the thing has stimulated interest in Tesla generally. According to the company, it had $40 million in advance orders on the day the car was revealed. That same day, the Model X was the third-most searched term on Google, and traffic to the company’s website went up 2,800 percent. Two thirds of all visitors were new, and reservations for the Model S were also up 30 percent — proof that creating buzz is a tonic for the whole product line.
Expect to see both the Model S and Model X in the leafy driveways of Greenwich and Westport hedge fund millionaires, where they’ll increase awareness of the brand and stimulate interest in Tesla’s truly mass-market car — a forthcoming popularly priced compact due in two years.
