GE backs off plan to buy 25,000 EVs

[ne_one]

GE backs off plan to buy 25,000 EVs
Automotive News
January 7, 2012
by Tim Catts

General Electric Co.'s commitment to buy 25,000 electric autos, promoted as the largest ever when it was announced more than two years ago, is taking a detour.

The obstacle: Customers of GE's corporate fleet-services unit wanted more options, said Deb Frodl, the division's chief strategy officer. So GE has included natural gas-powered pickups and propane-fueled vehicles among about 11,000 autos -- mostly plug-in hybrids and electric cars -- already acquired from makers including Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Co.

The shift at GE, whose 2010 pledge was hailed as a catalyst for bulk buying of electric vehicles, shows how businesses are struggling to balance greater fuel efficiency and reduced emissions against higher sticker prices, limited range and lingering doubts about still-infant technology.

GE is a large purchaser of fleet vehicles -- it owns 30,000 for its own employees and manages about 1.4 million for lease customers -- and its very name and place in U.S. history made its electric-autos promise particularly notable. The plan's new scope underscores the competition those vehicles face from alternative fuels as well as traditional gasoline engines.

Full article at link.

[dindak]

Well - I guess that's that then..

[krusshall]

I was always curious how that worked into the Volt sales numbers. It didn't.

[Voltastic]

There was a post/thread on gm-volt.com that mentioned a GE employee was not charging his Volt and using it like a regular gas-only car because he still had the GE gas card.

[dslay04]

In other news the Volt is still outselling many regular cars

[MechEng]

Not totaly suprising. There are some things you need a truck or van or ... for. The plug in electric options while growing are not that diverse yet. As awesome as the Volt is and even though it can meet the needs of a large demographic it doesn't work for everybody. I just only hope that GM can spread Voltec to many other vehicles to expand the demographics that this technology can appeal to.

[osbornk]

When you are managing fleets, the bottom line is cost. Fleet customers don't keep the cars long enough to offset the higher costs of the car with saved fuel costs. The only thing that matters is cost.

[b4z]

There was a post/thread on gm-volt.com that mentioned a GE employee was not charging his Volt and using it like a regular gas-only car because he still had the GE gas card.

He sounds like a star employee and a team player(sarcasm).

[TORRED1]

I was always curious how that worked into the Volt sales numbers. It didn't.

only 3000 Volts.

[tripowergto]

In other news the Volt is still outselling many regular cars

The Regal quickly comes to mind.

[Downandout]

There was a post/thread on gm-volt.com that mentioned a GE employee was not charging his Volt and using it like a regular gas-only car because he still had the GE gas card.

To be fair though, why would an employee go home and plug his company car into his household electricity when he can just use his fuel card instead. Heck, he may not even have a electric vehicle plug.

Maybe a pure electric vehicle is better as a fleet car, that way the employee is forced to charge the car instead of relying on free fuel.

[andretti]

In other news the Volt is still outselling many regular cars

Like the Regal!

[V8GMT360 Guy]

There was a post/thread on gm-volt.com that mentioned a GE employee was not charging his Volt and using it like a regular gas-only car because he still had the GE gas card.

Heh... well that's a fail. They ought to be doing something to incentivize employees to use the electric and hybrid cars as intended instead of still relying on their gas cards. As it is, buying a Volt for that employee was a waste when they could have bought a Cruze for much less money.

[osbornk]

To be fair though, why would an employee go home and plug his company car into his household electricity when he can just use his fuel card instead. Heck, he may not even have a electric vehicle plug.

Maybe a pure electric vehicle is better as a fleet car, that way the employee is forced to charge the car instead of relying on free fuel.

I had a company car in my first job out of college. The new employees were the "worker bees" with company cars that did all of the running for the company. Most of us didn't have the money to buy houses so we lived in apartments. There was no place to plug anything in at the apartments. The few of us who owned entry level houses usually didn't have garages and those that had garages sure didn't put a company car in them. With the company car outside in the "big city", a charging cord would have been stolen before daylight. An electric car for the typical company car is not practical.

[44 mpg by 2010]

^^^

Good point.