If electric cars make so much sense – if there’s so much demand for them – how come no one can sell the damned things?
Ford has announced the end of U.S. production of the C-Max Energi plug-in hybrid,which will be retired early next year – concluding a six-year run for a once-promising nameplate that was doomed by sluggish electrified vehicle demand.
Ford will continue to produce and sell gasoline and diesel versions of the C-Max in Europe “for a number of years,” a spokesman said.
Ford’s confirmation ends years of speculation that the brand’s worst-selling mass-market nameplate would disappear from U.S. dealerships.
Michelle Krebs, an analyst with Autotrader, said a number of market factors worked against the C-Max, including low gasoline prices and a consumer shift toward crossovers and SUVs.
“It’s a car in a market that wants SUVs — and not many people want hybrids,” she said. “It was one of the most heavily discounted cars in that segment, and that still didn’t move the needle. It had so many strikes against it.”
Interesting.
Yet no one connects the dots.
Electrified cars do not make economic sense – yet they are being forced-fed to a market that doesn’t want them.
This is economic seppuku for the car industry – they have to know it, too.
And yet, they continue to play ball.
Why?
. . .
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I was excited about the Mazda version of this car the mazda5 when i read European reviews about how the mazda 5 came with a 5 speed manual transmission. I have 2 kids and wanted a manual mini-mini van. Then all we got was the automatic and with that small of a motor it was not worth it. Then i was excited about the for c max but it came with a hybrid. Lost all interest in the mini-mini van segment and now we have an odyssey.
Seems like Ford, or any other car manufacturer, would have “gone dead in the water”, if there were only a handful of fueling stations after 10 years of auto production. The fact is, gasoline was a waste product of oil refining for decades before the advent of the automobile. Kerosene was in use for lamps, mall torches, and a limited number of heating furnaces, before the advent of the diesel engine. The point is, the IC engines made use of already abundant fuels that had relatively little or no use prior to their inception. The demand for the IC engine fulfilled a worldwide need, and didn’t require being “forced” on anyone, let alone being “subsidized” by everyone! IC engine expanded travel, commerce, and civilization a hundredfold beyond what was available at the time. As opposed to EV’s which are unable to manage even 10% of the usefulness of the modern IC engine.
Tesla opens up new rest-stop style charging stations:
https://electrek.co/2017/11/15/tesla-online-biggest-supercharger-stations-us-first-look-new-lounge/
“The stations are part of Tesla’s plan to have bigger charging stations with more amenities for popular long-distance routes where Tesla drivers would need to charge in order to complete them. …The first two stations are in California. One is in Kettleman City between Los Angeles and San Francisco and the other in Baker between Los Angeles and Las Vegas.
Seems to me they missed out on an opportunity by locating them in CA. If they had put it on the other side of the NV/CA state line they could have added a brothel. 20 minutes waiting around with nothing better to do…