British Columbians will have a while to wait before they can buy an electric vehicle despite the industry buzz that Ford Motor Co. created in January when it launched its Ford Focus electric vehicle at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit.
That vehicle, along with General Motors’ Chevy Volt and Nissan Motor Co.’s Leaf, will not likely be available in Vancouver until late 2011.
Fortunately for auto dealers, overall sales are picking up.
It is conventional gas-guzzling vehicles that are driving that growth.
Local hybrid vehicle sales are sluggish and microscopic in comparison.
Statistics Canada data released January 14 showed that new-vehicle sales in B.C. grew several times more than the national average.
Auto dealers in B.C., Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut sold 13,522 new vehicles in November, on a seasonally adjusted basis. That’s up 1% from October and is a 1.4% gain from the same month a year ago.
Nationally, new-vehicle sales rose a comparatively small 0.3% to 135,823 in November.
Hybrid sales burst out of the gate in the early part of this century and, in B.C., were fuelled in part through discounts on the provincial sales tax.
Now that the harmonized sales tax is in effect, those tax incentives are gone. Future incentives to encourage British Columbians to buy hybrid cars will almost certainly not be announced until a new premier is chosen.
Blair Qualey, president and CEO of the New Car Dealers Association of British Columbia told Business in Vancouver that he hopes that Victoria will announce some new incentives for consumers to buy hybrid vehicles before the March 29 through April 3 Vancouver International Auto Show.
“There were early adopters who wanted to buy a hybrid no matter what,” Qualey said.
“When gas prices shot through $1.40 per litre, a lot more folks were exploring options such as hybrids. The gas price has come down and those people are less motivated. As gas prices rise – and we’ve started to see that now – I think more consumers will look at hybrids as a choice.”
Qualey said corporations such as BC Hydro have been in talks with electric vehicle manufacturers and will likely be add electric vehicles to their corporate fleets long before consumers have the opportunity to buy one at a local dealership.
The inability to sell consumers electric cars can be frustrating for sales managers such as Pan Pacific Nissan Richmond’s Robbie Fukushima.
He is now forced to tell potential eager Nissan Leaf buyers that he does not know how much the vehicle will be or when some cars will be available for sale.
The Leaf is the only all-electric car on the market. It can travel about 160 kilometres on battery power before needing to be recharged. Vehicles such as Ford’s Focus also have the capacity to run on gasoline.
Despite growing interest in electric vehicles, the truth is that few people buy anything other than a conventional gasoline vehicle at Fukushima’s dealership.
He’s not alone.
J.D. Power and Associates data reveals that the hybrid share of light vehicle sales hovered at around 2.3% in 2010 compared with 2.8% in 2009 and 2.4% in 2008.
That could be because most customers are more concerned with the sticker price for their vehicle than potential savings that would accrue from using battery power for some of their driving, Fukushima said.
“The Nissan Ultima hybrid is not the hottest vehicle for this Nissan dealership,” Fukushima said. “We sell about one or two a year.”
In contrast, Fukushima’s team sells about 12 conventional Nissan Ultima sedans each month. They also sell more than 10 Nissan Rogue SUVs each month, Fukushima said.
“Our Ultima has been one of our most popular vehicles for probably 10 years because of the pricing and styling. Its price starts at $23,900 and goes up to about $40,000,” he said.