Spiffy, Yes, but Not for EV1 : GM Looking For a Certain Spark in Customers
“I wouldn’t buy one, but they’re nifty as heck.”
So spoke Lee Sims, a retired waitress from Costa Mesa, as she sized up General Motors’ EV1. Similar judgments came from printing supply salesman Rick Gassman of Coronado, college student Brian Nolan of Tustin and his father, Bill Nolan, all of whom pondered and then rejected the notion of a car that poops out every 70 to 90 miles.
Indeed, as GM keeps saying, the EV1 is not for everyone. Despite its sleek good looks and environmental cachet, the $34,000 price tag and its limited driving range make it impractical as much more than a diversion for most Southern California motorists.
Then there is Peter Preuss. A San Diego computer entrepreneur, philanthropist and recently named UC regent, he is to take delivery today of his EV1 along with other inaugural lessees at 24 Saturn dealerships in the Los Angeles, San Diego, Phoenix and Tucson areas.
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“I decided I would like to learn early about the technology, which might become prevalent sometime in the future,” Preuss said. “I do the same thing in the computer industry when new things come out.”
GM hopes to find just enough customers like Preuss to create and nurse along a fledgling market for electric vehicles, despite all their current drawbacks.
It refuses to give production or sales targets, but the auto maker has said all along that it will be satisfied initially with a small harvest of buyers who “know what they’re getting into,” in the words of John Campbell, a Santa Ana Saturn dealer.
To make sure there aren’t a bunch of unhappy customers running around, those famously nice Saturn salespeople have been trained to tell customers as much about the car’s drawbacks as about its advantages.
GM’s rarefied target market: environmentally minded customers with $120,000-plus incomes, advanced educations and at least two other cars in the garage for serious driving.
“We’re after technology-minded, very bright people,” said Scott Brierley, one of Saturn’s specially trained EV1 salespeople at the Saturn of Kearny Mesa dealership in San Diego.
That’s where Preuss comes in. He is one of the first five EV1 buyers in San Diego County, and all five certainly fit the profile. The others are a physicist, a solar power scientist, a top executive at a machine parts manufacturer and utility company San Diego Gas & Electric. Saturn declined to identify them.
Brierley is one of 13 EV1 specialists from Saturn who will service the market, spending an average of six hours “educating” buyers before selling the car, guiding them up the learning curve and giving them every opportunity to back away.
The purpose is to make sure prospective buyers understand the limitations of the vehicle. The consultants will also visit customers’ homes and businesses and help set up charging stations. Only after the customer is fully educated can the sale proceed. The process will take several days.
The car’s limitations explain why its prospects are so uncertain. GM says there is broad public interest and enthusiasm, but it remains to be seen how many people will actually commit to such an expensive experiment. Since January, GM has been publishing a toll-free number for prospective buyers. It’s had about 3,000 calls.
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GM says it decided to lease, not sell, the EV1 to protect consumers against getting stuck with a vehicle that could soon be surpassed in price and performance, especially as battery technology--and thus the vehicle’s driving range between charges--improves. GM itself hopes to replace the lead-acid batteries with nickel metal hydride in new EV1s as early as next year.
Even buyers who fit GM’s exclusive demographic profile may have security concerns. Although he admires the EV1’s design, which he likened to a hybrid of a Citroen and Jaguar, customer Gassman worried about the scarcity of recharging facilities and getting stranded in traffic or far from home.
A network of 150 rechargers is being planned by the state and Southern California Edison for shopping centers and public facilities along the Southland’s interstate highway corridors by early next year. But there are only 18 facilities now in California, all in the Inland Empire. Until the network is in place, owners had better “juice up” at home.
The state, in partnership with Edison, is offering to pay half the $15,000 cost of the recharging stations, if municipalities or private businesses pick up the rest and donate the electricity.
Shopping mall managers who have signed up for the rechargers see them as good for image building and marketing, realizing that EV1 drivers are likely to be big spenders. Ontario Mills, the new 200-store outlet mall at the confluence of interstates 10 and 15, placed two chargers in prime parking areas.
Said general manager Jim Mance: “We want to be forward from where other people are. It’s almost like handicap space: At some point in time, [all retailers] should be required to have these chargers available.”
* TAKING A CHANCE
GM rolls the dice with its electric vehicle. A1
* NOT THE FIRST
EVs are nothing new. Ask Henry Ford’s wife. D3
