ROME – The poisonous joke that circulates among the most stubborn deniers of the electric future is that there are now more models on offer than buyers willing to formalize a purchase. There is some truth behind this brutal synthesis: just look around the dealerships and it turns out that today the range of proposals is much wider than one would think: 34 cars for almost all portfolios, from the Porsche Taycan to the small Smart Fortwo wanting to line them by centimeters.
It has been the last three years that market presences have accelerated, with a whole crescendo of new cars that have made new buyers want, even if the progress in sales is more impressive due to the growth in percentage rather than in numbers. This always happens when we start with epochal turning points, and the epochal electric turning point is because it is a choice that starts first from the head than from the heart.
The manufacturers know this well and that is why, often even at a loss, they are pushing hard on the offer of always new models. They do it to take away the excuses from those who have to change the car: if this is the direction, it is useless to wait as it happened on the threshold of the economic crisis in 2009. Those who have a good memory remember that mainly because of Renault and Nissan there was no talk on the other hand that of electric cars with the then number one of the Franco-Japanese union, Carlos Ghosn, who prophesied, blatantly wrong, a market of around 10% in less than a decade. At the time there was the vision but not the offer, and the initial interest was followed by a widespread disillusionment in those who had quickly believed in the new world. Sales pundits call it the “empty window effect” to express the depression felt by those who want to buy and find themselves with very little choice. And they offer us a counterbalance to the enthusiasm generated by the shelves full and dense with different colors of the large supermarket chains.
Today it is the opposite because, one brand after another, everyone is converting; and the more they feel they are in good company, the more they throw themselves into it because if he is there I can not be there too. The result is that today there is already an embarrassment of choice, models adapted so as not to make those who start a clean conversion feel too original and models with their own style, in some cases deliberately brash, to make them recognized. The latter are perfect for trend setters, those who love to explore new ways and are keen to make it known.
Autonomy has grown and many of the objections of the traditionalists to the bitter end have been overcome, at least from the side of the producers who are already looking with apprehension and disappointment at the delays in the infrastructures and at the faults of those who govern by imposing the new that advances but avoids doing his part.
Two problems still remain, however. The first concerns potential buyers and the second concerns producers: the purchase price and the resistance of the sales networks.
In the first case it must be said that state incentives, in addition to the efforts of the car manufacturers, are finally starting to be sensitive, especially on cars with the most affordable price list. The offer is not yet torn, the one within reach of almost all budgets, but it is not even light years away as it was a decade ago, when you really had to be stubborn to invest an exaggerated amount in a small car. In short, I thought it was love but it was a gig.
But the ever higher price compared to a similar model in proportions, class and performance of a car with a heat engine is also the brake most feared by those who produce them and have to place them through the sales network in the area. What scares the manufacturers is that the seller, at the very moment he sees the customer uncertain about the amount to pay out, for fear of losing a contract, rushes to propose the most similar version he has at home in the name of ” But if you want to spend less, take this one: you know how far you will have to go before you can get the money out of your pocket. “
Consider, if you like, the last two steps before the final customs clearance; obstacles that concern above all the great mass, the indispensable one for turning. Those who can afford high-end jewels certainly don’t have these problems: at home they certainly have the garage where they can top up and the money in the bank. In addition, today, he is also spoiled for choice.
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