Nissan Sakura
Nissan
The electric car revolution in Europe requires a quick shift if it is to move from a well-suited early adopter niche to the mass market. European manufacturers have not yet got the memo; small is beautiful If this fails, the ramifications will be both political and economic.
Consumers will have to accept that electric cars, even expensive ones, have serious range limitations. Long trips with the family to the south of Spain or Italy for the summer holidays on fast autobahns are no problem for an internal combustion engine (ICE). But anxiety about fast but legal highway driving and poor charging facilities present major obstacles to electric vehicles. Considering 90% of motoring is never more than 30 miles a day anyway, daily use won’t be much of a problem. You can always rent a diesel for those annual trips to the sun or weekend jaunts. Or take the train.
Today’s electric technology produces, often at great expense, cars and SUVs with great short-range capability for everyday tasks like going to school, shopping and commuting. But despite an amalgamation of false claims to the contrary, once you get an electric car into long-range cruise mode on the freeway, the technology quickly wears out. Your $90,000 Audi E-trons, Mercedes or BMWs turn out to be expensive city cars.
Professor Peter Wells, Professor of Business and Sustainability at Cardiff Business School put it this way.
“Range falls off a cliff at high speed. For an electric car, the extra energy needed to go from 60 mph to 75 mph is staggering and practically doubles the energy consumption to push all the air away,” Wells said in an interview.
CEO Elon Musk once told me that all Tesla figures for range are based on an average of 55 mph. I don’t think that has changed.
However, mass car manufacturers such as Volkswagen, Stellantis and Renault are wasting billions of euros trying to make an electric car as powerful as an ICE engine. This is pointless if the goal is to produce climate-friendly cars that average earnings can afford. The more car manufacturers try to improve range, the bigger the batteries, the more grotesque the weight and size, the more carbon dioxide (CO2) consumed in the process, and the higher the price and less affordable (and no climatic sense). is the product
Europe needs electric cars with limited but effective capabilities, with 100 miles of range, 65 mph top speed and 2+2 kids on board, priced around $10,000. These cars wouldn’t need subsidies because buyers would be beating down the doors of dealerships. There would be no range anxiety because with no long distance pretensions, no one would try to go too far and no one would get stuck. All charging would be done at home or locally, so there would be no need to make massive investments in charging networks. New generation solid state batteries can change that.
Although the market is crying out for affordable electric cars, no European manufacturer seems ready to fill the void. The minimum price in Europe is around $37,000 after tax. So-called “affordable” electric vehicles on the horizon like the proposed VW.ID2 could bring the price down to $25,000. But that’s still about twice as much for the mass market.
There are vehicles in China and Japan that have the right qualities. There is the HongGuang MINI, already the market leader in China, the Nissan Sakura, a Kei electric car from Japan. Another Chinese contender, the BYD Seagull, might fit the bill. Nissan declined to comment on the suggestion that the Sakura could be destined for Europe.
Professor Wells said that if European car manufacturers do not fill this market, there could be problems.
“There is an emerging market gap in the small car segment, think Ford Ka and Ford Fiesta, (Citroen C1, Peugeot 108, SEAT Mii, Renault Twingo, now or soon to be discontinued ICE cars, priced out of market by EU regulations). ).We are creating a gap in the market for small cars that no manufacturer (in Europe) seems willing or able to fill. The European industry will be in trouble if it can’t get on board, even though that the opportunity is huge. Maybe the Chinese and so on will be able to design their vehicles to meet European requirements, or maybe start building them here,” Wells said.
Shazan Siddiqi, technology analyst at consultancy IDTechEX, said so-called microcars could try to fill this gap in the market. These small vehicles, including the Citroën Ami, Renault Mobilize Duo and Microlino, look attractive, but they don’t have to meet the EU safety standards that regular cars have to, so many potential buyers will balk at the perspective
“Common concerns about microcars include safety, vehicle design and regulations. As microcars are driven on the road alongside standard cars, safety is a major concern to protect drivers. There are areas to improve, such as stronger vehicle frames and adding airbags, or better suspension to keep the driver in control when going over potholes. More regulation is required to make safety requirements mandatory,” Siddiqi said.
Professor David Greenwood of Britain’s University of Warwick expects mass-market electric vehicles (EVs) to have smaller, cheaper batteries capable of around 150 miles of range and a 15-minute charge. There will still be room for new ideas.
“I think micromobility will play a bigger role in the urban/suburban mix. Scooters, light electric vehicles and innovative concepts that we can’t even see will still have their place on local roads and segregated bike lanes. The larger electric quads (aka microcars) will need to have some sort of crash approval and top speeds more like 40 mph to safely keep up with suburban traffic,” Greenwood said.
If average European wage earners find they have to go to work on an electric scooter, an electric bike, a Microlino or a bus, there will be a lot of political discontent. The CEO of Stellantis, Carlos Tavares, has already pointed this out forcefully. If the electric car revolution, at the behest of European Union politicians, means only the rich can afford cars, he said there would be plenty of payback in the election.
Professor Wells agrees.
“Politicians are taking the industry into risky territory by fueling the electric vehicle market. What about those who can’t afford it. Will they buy used? That’s not much of an answer. As Tavares says, remove the democratization of mobility it’s going to create all kinds of unrest. Whole communities are going to be cut off by this. It’s a big concern that this is going to become a big social problem in Europe, not so much in the United States,” Wells said.
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