Freelance Journalist

Introduce yourself
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Hi, my name is Aaron Turpen and I’m a freelance automotive journalist. I write for several alt-fuel sites and own a few of my own. I live in rural Wyoming, so a battery electric car is not really viable given the distances. I live about three hours from Denver, Colorado and have met with and spent a lot of time with the KillaCycle team, Boulder Electric and their truck, several of the conversion and up-fit companies in Northern Colorado and was part of the Green Car Convoy this year.

I’m looking forward to interacting in the forums here. Fair warning, I’m an EV realist and an alt-fuel proponent, so expect to hear objections when electrics are touted as the only solution or when any alternative to them is poo-poo’d out of hand. I’m a big proponent of energy diversification rather than another monofuel paradigm.

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Welcome to the forum, and glad to have more realists on board.

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Hi Aaron

Welcome to the forum and we certainly look forward to hearing your views and opinions on the industry.

While you have an obvious interest in EVs, as I have read many of your very informative posts already, there has been a suspicion for some time that some motoring journalists are not so keen for the industry to be successful - from your knowledge of motoring journalism do you think there is any credence to this rumour or is the just hot air from the EV industry?

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[QUOTE=Editor;14851]While you have an obvious interest in EVs, as I have read many of your very informative posts already, there has been a suspicion for some time that some motoring journalists are not so keen for the industry to be successful - from your knowledge of motoring journalism do you think there is any credence to this rumour or is the just hot air from the EV industry?[/QUOTE]

I think there’s some credence to that belief. There is an old guard of journalists, mostly working as mainstays at big publications, who are still hung up on horsepower and exhaust notes. These guys mostly write for magazines and sheets that appeal to gear heads. The ones you’ll see sitting on the table in the waiting room at your local mechanic’s shop or small dealership.

Those guys are going out, though. I’ve met several of them at various manufacturer-sponsored events (reveals, unveils, press conferences) and they’re all past retirement age. The few that are younger are mostly writing for and interested in muscle car rags anyway.

I met one of those younger guys in Denver. He was doing a writeup on motorcycle drag racing (this was a couple of years ago) and we both witnessed the KillaCycle burn a 7.89 speed on the quarter. He was floored.

Some EVagenlists make fun of electrics in racing, but I can tell you, the fastest way to convert most of these gearheads is to show them that these EVs can whoop buttocks on the track. There are hybrids in Formula One now as well as GT.

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That is very interesting to hear Aaron!

Would I be right in assuming that as the “old” journalists retire and younger journalists come through, we may well see a more positive spin put on the electric vehicle market? If so, the next few years could be a major turning point for this industry?

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[QUOTE=Editor;14855]Would I be right in assuming that as the “old” journalists retire and younger journalists come through, we may well see a more positive spin put on the electric vehicle market? If so, the next few years could be a major turning point for this industry?[/QUOTE]

In some ways, yes, but most automotive journalists, because we’re exposed to a lot of vehicles of every type, have a pretty pragmatic view of EVs. Electrics will be accepted by and grow as an industry in the same way every other industry does: when they’ve proven themselves.

Smart phones and gadgets can change constantly and people will buy the latest and greatest as soon as it’s affordable. When you’re looking at $500 or less, it’s not hard to gamble on something that costs less than a paycheck for the average person and has an expected lifespan of two years or less.

When you’re talking about something that will cost $200-$500/month for three to five years and has an expected lifespan of 9-11 years, though, and that item is your second-largest investment overall… things take a little longer and expectations are higher.

The best-selling cars are mid-sized family sedans (about 27% of the market). There’s heavy competition there and until last year, there were no electrics of any kind. Now there are three hybrid options (Toyota Camry Hybrid, Ford Fusion Hybrid and Plug-in) and one electric, the Tesla Model S - which only just started selling and is well outside of the price range of the majority of family car buyers. The next-largest market is trucks, which now have no production hybrid options (they didn’t sell at all, so can’t blame GM for dumping the idea). The next market after that are people movers - SUVs, minivans, etc. Not a lot of hybrid options there either.

So far, all electrics and most hybrids that are selling in any numbers are compacts. There’s a market for those, but it’s not the largest in this country. Compacts sell exceptionally well in Europe and Asia, but are just a relatively small segment here.

Until electrics start becoming mainstream and in the markets that sell well in this country, they’re not going to “boom” as an industry. Compared to itself, of course, the EV industry booms every year - getting larger and larger. But compared to the overall market, it’s still not even 1% (barely 3% of you count hybrids). It will take time - and a lot of it. We’ve been driving gasoline cars for 75 years now. They’ve had a long time to become dominant and to have their supporting infrastructure built. EVs will take decades (probably two generations) to do the same.

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Hi Aaron

In many ways it is the “chicken and the like scenario” in which one comes first? The breakthrough into the mass market would lead to reduction in electric car prices but automotive companies would not be keen to reduce their prices until they had broken into the mass market.

At this moment in time the technology does not really seem to be affordable for the mass market and there is still much development required. Your comments regarding the development of the gasoline powered car market and the potential two generation lead time for the electric vehicle market are interesting.

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It just takes time. When gasoline cars became dominant, it didn’t happen in a couple of years or even a decade. It took a couple of generations. Even with Henry Ford pumping out hundreds of cars per day, it wasn’t until the 1940s that cars were truly replacing horses. That’s about 30 years of development with mass production in place (plus the 30+ before that).

Automobiles are a multi-fold market. The cars themselves are the end product of several pre-production markets for parts, resources, etc. Once the car is sold, the market for fuels, repairs, etc. are also involved. Each of those has to be developed or switched from the current combustion engine paradigm.

It’s just a matter of time. Nissan made a cool video that sort of explains this through an interview with a 97-year-old driver. [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkwhjbmeQJs]Nissan Looks Back and Forward with a 97 Year Old Driver - YouTube[/ame]

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[QUOTE=AaronTurpen;14911]It just takes time. When gasoline cars became dominant, it didn’t happen in a couple of years or even a decade. It took a couple of generations. ][/QUOTE]

The original Detroit Electric company kept producing cars until 1939. Well before that though electric car sales were dwindling and it was clear that gas powered cars were dominant.