The reason Electric Scooters are working in other countries is plain and simple. The right subsidies to the right people - CONSUMERS AND RIDERS.
I just read online about another EV car company closing. http://articles.latimes.com/2012/jan/27/business/la-fi-think-mainbar-20120127
Think cars = This company was the king or worldwide subsidies that despite all the hype could not work if there was no consumer demand. In many cases it takes an established brand to create demand or push consumers when there is none.
In the world of motorcycles that equals Honda or to a lesser extent Vespa. Someone with brand recognition, dealer incentives, and the capital needed to go long term. All the startups in Europe and America are not sustainable except for the fact that eventually they can sell their technology or license it to one of the big names. Only if they truly have something revolutionary. It is highly doubtful that any of them can make a brand that can last more than a decade. Does anyone ever talk about US made Tiger Shark Jet Skis in America? No, that's right because nobody remembers them.
In the last two years I was offered help by a Chinese OEM who found me online based on my previous experiences in the scooter industry and offered us financing to the tune of $500,000. All it required was matching funds, a location in Florida to assemble vehicles, and the right people.
Being that a small business including mine cannot go to the bank and get a loan these days we have to rely on grants and incentives to start an assembly line I approached over two dozen cities. Two in Florida offered us over $200,000 in incentives to assemble vehicles. The best one had some strings attached including hiring 30 people within 2 years, signing a 5 year lease, and paying such high salaries that the company would never turn a profit.
The worst of all this. Is that we could not find incentives to the consumers. Taiwan on the other hand has the right idea. Right now the island country (part of China sort of depending on who you ask and what election year it is ) is giving $468,000 more to buy electric scooters. Makes sense doesn't it? Because right now in America with low gas prices there are no incentives to assemble or buy EV scooters.
I met with Current Motor's past president and the former head of the company http://www.currentmotor.com/ before the new board took over and explained the same thing to them. If you don't have people that understand the Scooter market in the USA, you are just taking investor money and spending it. I would hate to be part of something that just looses money no matter what venture capitalist you bring onboard, a bad business plan is a bad business plan. You need consumer demand first. I saw the same thing happen at Vectrix Motor before it went bust the first time. Spending investor money by having meeting's at Mortons Steak House didn't really produce the results they wanted if there was little consumer demand and a team that didn't understand scooter dealerships in the USA. I called it, I warned them, and they still closed.
There are twenty or so private people all trying to import low end Chinese made or Taiwanese made Electric Scooters right now. None of them have the power of a real Taiwanese brand like Kymco or SYM. They are all 4th tier manufacturers. Some of them like Jonway (ZAP) sell generic tech and molds to new assemblers. The Current Scooters are generic Molds that are imported by NST, BMS, and twenty other US importers only difference is the components inside. So right from the start its an uphill battle at a scooter dealership in product differentiation. I expect to see more EV importers at the Dealer Expo this year in a few weeks in Indianapolis (Indiana home of the failed Think Cars I mentioned earlier) most of these will not be at the next show. The investors will have lost money in their get rich selling EV penny stock scam and consumers will be left without parts and support.
I see the same rush to invest into EV scooters as I saw in 2007 as investors were looking for new importers to invest in the gas scooter market right before the boom of 2008. All these people that invested go out, hundreds of scooters ended up at auctions, and consumers cannot get parts, warranty or support. Can you imagine a dealer looking for Vectrix parts had Vectrix not come back as a new company? Where would you find compatible parts? Can you imagine looking for EV scooter parts for a private label name if the company goes bust?
History is repeating itself all over again and I don't see anyone in the actual vehicle industry taking steps to make sure they protect American consumers. More after the Dealer Expo 2012.
| More funds allocated to subsidize electric scooter purchases 2012/01/26 21:01:23 | ||||||||||||
Buyers of motor bikes that comply with the Taiwan E-scooter Standard (TES) will receive a reimbursement of either NT$7,200 or NT$10,000, depending on the scooter type, the ministry said. A total of 10,100 scooter owners have applied for the subsidy since 2009, said the ministry, which has distributed NT$80 million under the program. Most applications have come from Kaohsiung, New Taipei, Taoyuan County, and Taipei, with each accounting for over 2,000 scooterpurchases, said an official from the ministry who refused to be named. This year's NT$150 million budget is NT$50 million more than was allocated to the program in 2011, the official said. The money will be used not only to subsidize the purchase of TES scooters but also to promote the concept of using electric scooters, which run on rechargeable batteries. Consumers have shown growing confidence in the vehicles in recent years, with 7,500 electric scooters sold in 2011, more than double the 3,100 sold in 2009. This year, the ministry aim | ||||||||||||
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