Outlandish figures fuelled by new tech

Date: 07 October 2014   |   Author:

"We knew we had a car that's not compromised - it's got four-wheel drive, a good boot, five seats, it's a mainstream car - so we had to keep it as normal as possible, even though it's extraordinary in what it can do," says Bradley. "We had to make sure it was at the right price, otherwise we were competing in a market of 981 vehicles. There were discussions with the factory for quite a long time. Their view was that it's amazing so you can charge more for it, [but] we were determined not to do that."

That belief in the low pricing point comes from Mitsubishi's experience with the i-Miev electric city car, which didn't go down as a resounding success in volume terms.

"There was an expectation that we would sell to people who wanted the new technology and didn't care that it was too expensive," explains Bradley. "The absolutely common theme was that 'the car looks brilliant, [but] how much money will it save me?' There weren't people saying 'it's brilliant, I want one'."
He compares that to other technology such as LED TVs, which found homes with early adopters despite prices in the thousands, before rapidly coming down to the point where they were affordable for most people. "That didn't happen with EVs. People weren't willing to pay," says Bradley.

"With the PHEV, we decided we wouldn't launch it at the wrong price - we knew it was a game-changer and different to others on the market. The Vauxhall Ampera, the Volvo V60 PIH [Plug-In Hybrid] are good products but compromised - for example, having four seats or [not having] a big boot, and what they all had in common was that they were too expensive."

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