Would you buy an Apple car? 21 % of Europeans would!

Subscribe to our RSS feed or get updates by Email for all the latest spy photos, videos, news and reviews!

Electric cars seem to be the future as almost every big automaker has introduced an electric car concept by now and has plans for actual production. Some of the companies like Tesla Motors are already delivering first models to their customers.

So far auto execs have not been too sure would there be enough demand to justify the massive ramp-up cost. Now a recent study by consultant Bain & Co suggests there is a real market for electric cars.

The survey of 4,000 people in eight countries, including the U.S., China, Japan and Germany, finds that high-income buyers are ready to buy all-electric vehicles as a second vehicle for short trips. “Consumers would be buying now if there were products,” says Gregor Matthies, a Munich-based partner at Bain who specializes in the auto industry.

Demand for electric cars is highest among people who already own luxury cars and have the money to buy another car. They are environmentally more concerned and want the people to know it.

Currently the production costs are quite high due to the batteries, but within few years it should be possible to mass-produce a small electric vehicle that would sell for about $26,000. At that price, the market for electric vehicles in the U.S. would be 150,000 to 175,000 vehicles a year, Bain estimates.

The Bain survey finds that customers are eager to buy an electric car from familiar names, but the automakers are nervous that shift to electric will invite new competitors such as utilities, who might subsidize the price of the car such as wireless operators do with mobile phones.

Also as the electric cars are less complicated to build we are likely going to see more manufactures like Tesla Motors and Fisker Motors.

One of the most interesting questions Bain survey asked is whether customers would buy a car from Apple. Surprisingly 21 % said YES, 48 % said they would buy an electric car from BMW. As Apple is far from making cars compared to BMW this is very surprising, showing strong brand loyalty and potential for new companies to enter the electric car race. Existing carmakers on the other hand would be facing new competition from companies they have no reason to worry about today.

Next five years are going to be interesting and we predict that if the costs associated with batteries drop there will be millions of electric cars on the roads soon. Everyone except oil companies should love it!

Source: BusinessWeek