Not So Fast

I annually look carefully at the Motor Trend new car issue, and a couple of things stood out. This being a business blog, I’m outlining below some business opportunities for some hardy entrepreneurs.

  1. There’s a high degree of EV-ism among the offerings, but with the exception of Tesla’s charger, there don’t seem to be the chargers to support them. Ford, with all of its dealers, could do a charger network.
  2. The cars are all faster and more expensive, but in the middle of a recession, I would think the automakers would rethink this. Arizona is wider open than most states, but most of the cars are in the metro hubs of Phoenix and Tucson. Slower, more efficient isn’t much represented here. Ford’s even cancelling my little EcoSport, at least for the US market. I think this might be a mistake, given current economic conditions around the world.
  3. I applaud Jim Farley at Ford for saying he’s going to put passion back into all of Ford’s cars, and the recent Ford offerings seem to bear his philosophy out. Their cars and trucks seem to have a different slant to things. Market research is much in evidence. I wonder what he’s gonna do with the Escape or the Ecosport? The idea is to not do commodity cars, which is quite sound from a marketing standpoint.
  4.  Motor Trend doesn’t do trucks, but they’re a big segment of the market, and they all have motors. More electric than before, maybe more hybrid. Some of the SUV’s look like trucks, you’re doing pickups, and the vehicles like the Ford Transit bridge to car/truck divide, so think about it, MT.