Americans bought about 13,000 battery-powered and plug-in hybrid vehicles in December – one of the best months on record for those kinds of cars and trucks.
But that’s only about four days worth of sales of the Ford Motor Co. F-Series pickup, underlining how difficult it is to convince drivers to buy more fuel-efficient vehicles when a gallon of gas at U.S. pumps costs considerably less than $2 (U.S.).
“This is arguably one of the biggest challenges the industry faces,” said Jeff Schuster, senior vice-president of auto consulting firm LMC Automotive Ltd., of Troy, Mich.
There’s an electric or hybrid or fuel-cell vehicle on the stands of virtually every auto maker at the North American International Auto Show, which opened to the media in Detroit on Monday, and if they’re not on display, they’re on the drawing boards or coming to market later this decade.
Among the introductions and commitments made by auto makers on Monday was the appearance of the first hybrid minivan, with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV (Chrysler) offering that option on its redesigned people haulers. Luxury maker Audi AG said it would offer three new hybrid vehicles over the next three years and Toyota said it would offer a fuel cell-powered vehicle in its fleet by 2020.
The impact of falling gas prices is also evident in Canada, where sales of crossovers outpaced those of compact cars in 2015 for the first time ever. Sales of the even smaller and more fuel-efficient subcompact cars fell so much that Mazda Canada Inc. stopped offering a subcompact for sale.
“The one thing we can’t control, of course, is customer demand,” Ford Motor Co. chairman Bill Ford said, although he maintained that offering hybrids and battery-powered vehicles and developing new ones makes sense even in an era of low gas prices.
But the growing popularity of crossovers and continued growth in pickup-truck sales will make it difficult for auto makers to meet the 2025 targets for fuel economy and emissions established by Canadian and U.S. governments.
Drivers “are not concerned about gas prices and they are not demanding these [new] technologies, so it’s a huge disconnect,” said Jay Baron, president of the Center for Automotive Research, an industry think tank located in Ann Arbor, Mich.
The U.S. regulations will require auto makers to sell vehicles that reach an average fuel economy of 54.5 miles per gallon across the fleet by 2025. California’s even more stringent 2025 requirements call for 15 per cent of auto makers’ fleets to consist of zero-emission vehicles.
There’s a review of the 2025 targets scheduled for next year and auto makers are expected to make the case that consumers’ lack of concern about fuel economy will make it difficult to meet the targets.
A survey released by consulting firm J.D. Power and Associates on Monday showed that fuel economy ranked third behind exterior styling and comfortable seating as reasons for buying new vehicles.
U.S. politicians have rejected the idea of increasing the country’s gas tax for the first time since the 1990’s as a way of encouraging sales of hybrid and battery-powered vehicles.
So Mr. Baron said governments have told the industry that auto makers and regulators need to work together to change consumer behavior.
“Good luck with that,” he said.
Read more of the original article at The Globe and Mail.
