The C-Word: Compliance

A person interested in electric cars, as all you loyal readers doubtless are, might be shocked to find that selection is somewhat limited. Yes, though they offer many distinct advantages over their gas-powered counterparts, the electric car continues to be sabotaged by nearly every auto manufacturer. The piss-poor array of electric-powered choices is even piss-poorer when you live in Michigan, believe it or not.

All electric, and none sold in Michigan. 

The reason for this, and some wrongly say the reason the electric car exists at all, is to comply with California's requirement that automakers build a certain number of Zero-Emission (predominantly electric) cars to meet increasingly strict air quality standards. While a select few manufacturers make these cars available to purchase country-wide, most choose to make a very small number of EVs available to purchase or lease in California in order to meet the bare minimum legal requirements. These "compliance cars" are available only to a few people, in a couple states. And Michigan's not one of them.

In our home state, only the Tesla Model S, Nissan Leaf, Ford Focus Electric, and Mitsubishi Car-Shaped-Object are available. The Focus EV is available in such limited quantities (about 100 a month), and Ford hates it so much, that it's not really worth talking about. The Tesla costs more than the average Detroit-area house. Which leaves...

Anything but the Mitsubishi Car-Shaped-Object!

Obviously, the Nissan Leaf is the only real option if you want to drive the streets of Motown without stopping for gas. Happily, it looks like the BMW i3 will be available locally soon, and though it will be smaller and pricier than the Nissan, we should all rejoice in the doubling of real available options.

Note BMW i3's standard 19" pothole-prone wheel size.

It's too bad manufacturers don't embrace the compliance cars they make and offer them up to the rest of the US. Some, like Fiat's 500e and Honda's Fit EV, are universally praised in the press, and seem to be in many ways better executed than the Nissan Leaf. When actually available for purchase, these cars fly off the dealer lots.

My view should be obvious by now, but as soon as you say the word "conspiracy" you're tracked by the goons of the Old World Order. Nevertheless, I shall continue to be the voice of light in the darkness of gasoline-fueled smog.

and the Apocaplops rages on...