Just picked up a 2008 Wrangler Unlimited myself...fun!
Posted on 08/04/2013 9:47:03 AM PDT by ckilmer
Tesla Nabs 8% of the U.S. Luxury Car Market
By Chris Neiger | More Articles August 4, 2013 | Comments (0)
As if Tesla's (NASDAQ: TSLA ) 280% stock price increase since the beginning of 2013 or becoming profitable in Q1 of this year wasn't enough, the Electrification Coalition released a report last week stating that Tesla's Model S made up 8.4% of the U.S. luxury automotive market in the first six months of the year.
In the first quarter of this, year Model S sales outpaced Audi A8, BMW 7-series and Mercedes S Class sales. But what's really striking about the comparison is that Tesla is a young car company and its Model S has been selling for only about 14 months, while BMW has sold its 7-series since 1977 and Audi's flagship A8 launched back in 1994.
Tesla Model S. Source: Tesla.
Part of Tesla's success is due to the acceptance of plug-in electric vehicles, or PEVs, among U.S. consumers and an overall bounce back in automotive sales. We first saw evidence that the U.S. luxury auto market was coming back in 2011, with spikes in sales from BMW and Mercedes. Meanwhile, the PEV business has seen more than 110,000 U.S. vehicle sales since the beginning of 2011 -- including cars from Tesla, General Motors, Nissan, Toyota, and others.
Topping off Tesla's solid PEV and luxury position is that PEV sales have been twice as high in their first two years than hybrid vehicles were in the first two years after that market's initial launch -- a trend that could certainly continue to benefit Tesla.
But Tesla has bigger aspirations than just tackling the luxury or PEV market. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been very vocal about introducing a $30,000 car for the masses by 2016. To achieve that goal, the company will need to significantly decrease the cost of its batteries. That's why the latest information form the Electrification Coalition is so important. The group expects battery costs to drop by almost half by 2020.
Model S interior. Source: Tesla.
But not everyone is convinced Tesla can lower battery costs in time -- including Bill Alpert of Barron's. "Industries and governments around the world have spent billions on battery research, but few expect to trim electric-car battery costs by more than 20%-30% by the planned 2016 launch of Tesla's car for the Everyman," he wrote in an article last month.
But if battery costs do drop by half by 2020, then it's not out of the realm of possibility for them to fall by 20% to 30% over the next three or four years. GM and Nissan are researching how they can reduce EV battery costs by selling used batteries after their automotive lifecycle is finished. Used EV batteries can still have 70% of their initial capacity after about 10 years, and the two car companies are looking into ways to sell those batteries to energy companies.
But the best way to lower battery costs is for auto consumers to adopt EVs and scale down the overall cost of battery prices in the process. So far, things have been moving in the right direction for that to happen. From 2010 to 2011, just over 17,000 electric vehicles were sold. In 2012, that number jumped to more than 52,000. Now, just seven months into 2013, the EV auto market has already sold almost 41,000 electric vehicles. The models of EV cars on the market also jumped from just three in 2010-2011 to 13 right now. Those stats have contributed to a drop in EV battery prices by about 40% from 2010 to 2012.
And they're the ones who should be buying hybrid electric vehicles, allowing the technology to mature and trickle down to the everyday driver.
In the 1920s and 1930s it was the luxury vehicles who pioneered supercharging, V8 engines, hydraulic brakes, electric starters, etc.
Just picked up a 2008 Wrangler Unlimited myself...fun!
SWEET!
I am a supporter of electric cars and hope they can make it on their own. I also support more oil production in the US. Anything other than oil from the middle east or venezuela.
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Yeah I put this in the same category as the Picken’s Plan to put truckes and busses on natural gas. Anything that reduces demand for oil—especially foreign oil ... is better.
With 0scumbag shutting-down scores of coal-fired power plants, how are they going to charge the EV cars? Windmills?
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good question. I think the carbon dioxide hysteria is way overated and stupid. No coal plants need to be shut down.
Total BS. When’s the last time anybody saw a Tesla driving down the street? Anyone? Bueller, Bueller? I didn’t think so. You would think that with 8% of the market you’d see one at least occasionally instead of virtually n e v e r!
My buddy’s daughter has one. She’s a drug saleswoman (awesome legs, LOL) and gets “free” juice at work. The joke is some other guy bought a Volt and they are squabbling over the plug-in.
Yeah but what happens to the price of oil if electric cars grab an ever larger piece of the automobile pie
Nothing much will happen. If by some means the true market forces work this corrupt government will just tax it more.
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this is true as long as we’re talking about 10k-500k cars. but if 1 million electric cars are on the road displacing gas demand with electric demand....—that will put a serious dent in the demand for oil .... that will force oil prices down.
Consider also that that the USA is producing an extra 1 million barrels of oil each year.
Currently demand for oil from overseas is increasing steadily (US demand is not currently falling) and US production is increasing steadily so supply and demand are balanced.
Total BS. When’s the last time anybody saw a Tesla driving down the street? Anyone? Bueller, Bueller? I didn’t think so. You would think that with 8% of the market you’d see one at least occasionally instead of virtually n e v e r!
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Most of the Tesla’s being sold are being sold in California coastal communities.
And prior to the 20s it was electric vehicles, but I get your point about the rich allowing technology to develop.
http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/jay-leno/vintage/4215940
Electric Cars use fossil fuels than an internal combustion engine.
On the other end of the scale let’s ask McAulliffe how many greentech cars his (formerly on the board) company actually sold? Answer almost as many as Tesla.
They will need to compete better and finally lower their prices to cause more people to buy the cars that use their products! Competition is good and we see over the years what has happened when the oil companies have had almost none...big big price gouging periods..because they can.
Massive amounts of CO2 come just from rotting plants and animals.
The autumn leaves for example.
CO2 is only a problem if it displaces O2.
You mean Teddy Roosevelt didn’t provide a technology grant to Baker?
Six years ago your hypothetical 1 million electrics would be less than half of one percent. Serious dent? Heck that's barely a ding around here.
"254.4 million registered passenger vehicles in the United States according to a 2007 DOT study"
It depends on how you define "luxury".I consider the makes that I mentioned earlier to all be luxury brands.BMW,for example,sells the 5 Series...its "midline" sedan and a car that I consider to be very much a luxury car.I've driven a couple of them and they sure beat anything that Ford,Chevy,Toyota or Honda makes.
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