The electric car “finding” seems to be a red herring. Of course a Taxi company knows, in advance, how many kilometres its cars will likely be driven. The owning company has two other conventional taxi companies. They are not ignorant of the data.
So given that they knew both the distances expected, and the range of the cars they were using – what was the “real reason” the company is folding?
BTW: my electric car (2012 Volt) shows a real world variance of from 45 km to over 70 km electric range depending on outside temperature. That is a 36% reduction in range in cold weather.
Matt Fulkersonsays:
It’s a shame the Volt is no longer being made. 50 miles on a charge is enough for 95% of most people’s needs. We just purchased a way too expensive Honda Clarity, which appears to be the only plugin hybrid on the market that approaches the Volt’s electric range.
I’ve never really understood the hype around self driving cars. I’m not a believer.
The “real reason” is probably “complicated”. They did not say that they folded because of the range. The founder only reports on it as a finding, not a cause of the failure.
Maybe your view is that one could have anticipated it. You are no doubt correct. But electric cars are new, there were no other examples. It is always easy, in retrospect, to say that it was “known”… but did they factor it in? It seems that the founder did not. He was taken by surprise.
Dominic Amannsays:
I suspect that there were many reasons for the failure, and most new companies fail. To tease out the electric car as being responsible would, in my view be premature.
The electric car “finding” seems to be a red herring. Of course a Taxi company knows, in advance, how many kilometres its cars will likely be driven. The owning company has two other conventional taxi companies. They are not ignorant of the data.
So given that they knew both the distances expected, and the range of the cars they were using – what was the “real reason” the company is folding?
BTW: my electric car (2012 Volt) shows a real world variance of from 45 km to over 70 km electric range depending on outside temperature. That is a 36% reduction in range in cold weather.
It’s a shame the Volt is no longer being made. 50 miles on a charge is enough for 95% of most people’s needs. We just purchased a way too expensive Honda Clarity, which appears to be the only plugin hybrid on the market that approaches the Volt’s electric range.
I’ve never really understood the hype around self driving cars. I’m not a believer.
The “real reason” is probably “complicated”. They did not say that they folded because of the range. The founder only reports on it as a finding, not a cause of the failure.
Maybe your view is that one could have anticipated it. You are no doubt correct. But electric cars are new, there were no other examples. It is always easy, in retrospect, to say that it was “known”… but did they factor it in? It seems that the founder did not. He was taken by surprise.
I suspect that there were many reasons for the failure, and most new companies fail. To tease out the electric car as being responsible would, in my view be premature.