According to a customer survey instigated by Norwegian electric car maker Think, a 55% majority of the people that were quizzed agreed that 70 miles of range is acceptable for an electric car – as long as the car was affordable.
The CEO of Think, Horgan Vordle Borgan Ger-Nurdle (not his real name) is said to be delighted with the news, as the company is planning to bring it’s all-electric CityCar to the U.S. later this year.
A team of spotty MBA students from the University of Michigan organised this particular survey, asking 367 potential electric car buyers whether a range of 70 to 80 miles would be acceptable if the price of the car dropped by $5,000.
This means if Think can reduce their $32,500 price tag down to $27,500 then they’d have more sales than a cocaine dealer on Kate Moss’ doorstep. It would also make the CityCar the same pre-tax credit price as the Nissan LEAF.
Now before all you EV fans run into the streets and start burning SUVs, you should take a step back and realize that polls are not indicative of the actual result. For example, look at the fascinating UK election.
History shows us that when the time comes for people to actually open their wallets, everyone suddenly stares at their shoes and waits for that inevitable dry cough from down the back somewhere. There’s always a cough in awkward situations.
Think CEO Richard Canny (his real name – kinda disappointing really) doesn’t seem to be worried about the potentially misleading poll results. That is to say that he hasn’t publicly wept to the best of my knowledge and it’s still business as usual in the factory, as the first few cars begin production.
Mr Canny has also struck up a deal for EnerDel, an Indiana battery manufacturer, to supply the lithium-ion battery packs for their vehicles sold in the US.
The website “Autoblog Green” discussed the results saying, “half of the respondents said that [70 miles of range] was fine. Only nine percent said they’d be willing to pay even less for an EV that can only go 50 miles. On the other end of the spectrum, 55 percent said they’d pay an extra five grand to be able to go 150-160 miles per charge.”
Due to the survey results, Think has announced that it may offer different sizes of batteries at different prices. Of course that means they also may not. It depends if the glass is half full, or for maximum effect, say it with a Norwegian accent: “thar clarss is halv voowl”.
While I’m pointing wildly, I should also point out this poll was instigated by Think, so to paraphrase everything on the Shopping Channel, “Actual results may vary”.
