Will you Consider investing in an Electric Car?

There is a considerable buzz on electric cars these days. And Nissan Leaf has taken a lead over Chevrolet’s Volt by announcing the bookings in the US and Japan. Initial response to Nissan Leaf is very encouraging. However, as a normal car owner like me, the perinent question to ask at this point of time is to find out if you will buy an electric car right now or in the forseeable future.

While the electric car industry is in its infancy and there are many new projects on the anvil, the success or failure of Nissan’s Leaf will decide the direction that the electric vehicle market will take for the future. If the fossil fuels are available at affordable prices, the electric vehicle market may not see much of anticipated action, barring the few green car enthusiasts.

Fossil fuels have a very clear and massive distribution network. The overall fuel-delivery industry has matured to such an extent that there are multiple addon benefits that are available to the business owners or fleet owners that directly impact the swift, smooth and concise running of business and fleet operations. Consider the example of ease of availability of fuel cards for business organizations. A business fleet fuel card can allow the business owners and fleet managers to effectively set targets for business fuel expenses and then manage them on a continuing basis Getting the indivuals to migrate to a new fuel form will be tough and getting business owners to migrate fleet operations to a newer fuel will be even tougher. Unless the industry matures and is assured of continuous and unhindered availability of green fuel, there is little chance of fleet operations to rely on them.

Now compare the above scenario with an Electric car charging stations that are just about starting up. And this is one of the biggest challenges for the electric car market space.

Apart from the affordable and continuous availability of fossil fuels, the initial cost of electric vehicles is likely to be higher . With the exception of few enthusiasts, mass-population will adopt green cars if they see merit in reducing their ongoing expenses. Add to this the comfort of ease of availability of charging stations  The cost-benefits need to include the one-time costs as well as the running and maintenance costs for the electric vehicle. As a normal human tendency, people resist change. And changing gasoline-driven cars with electric cars is not an easy or straight-forward decison for a business owner or an individual owner of the vehicle.