[Business Insider] In the decade I've been covering the auto industry, I've never seen a bigger mismatch between market expectations for electric vehicles and market realities.Back in 2010, I was standing in the parking lot of Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles to hear then-Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn proclaim that by 2020, 10% of the auto market worldwide would be electric. The occasion was the introduction of Nissan's Leaf EV, a car that's still on sale today, even though Ghosn's career is in ruins as he awaits trial in Japan on allegations of financial malfeasance.
The global market for plug-in electric vehicles ‐ and that's plug-in gas-electric hybrids as well all-electric battery vehicles, aka BEVs ‐ stand at about 2% on the eve of Ghosn's benchmark year.
A decade is more than enough time for a market to develop for a new type of vehicle. It's happened again and again, with everything from muscle cars to front-wheel-drive sedans to minivans. That EV sales growth has been so weak, relative to expectations, means consumers fundamentally don't want the cars.
It gives me no joy to report this. In the US ‐ the most competitive market ‐ consumers don't want hybrids, either. They do want SUVs and pickups. While this trend has been great for automakers' bottom lines (SUVs and pickups are highly profitable), it's not going to rescue the planet from climate change. I have three children and I don't want them to inherit blistering winds in summer and savage hurricanes in winter.