When Kiichiro Toyoda was planning an automotive spin-off of his father’s automatic loom company in the 1930s, his idea was to produce battery-operated vehicles. However, this plan was foiled because he could not produce batteries that worked the way they did in his imagination. So Toyota Motor Company started making vehicles with the internal combustion engines that remain the industry standard today.

Many other inventors have come along since then with electrically powered vehicles or other variations. Today, the industry is abuzz with talk of the next great “green car”, and various technologies are well underway by the manufacturers.

The major challenge they all face is marketing these vehicles to buyers. In large part, this is due to the higher price tags for green cars. But it isn’t the only challenge.

A Synovate survey in the US reveals that consumer knowledge about hybrid power trains is so low that it could prove a significant barrier to sales. “Even though electric powertrains, especially hybrids, have been available for more than a decade, new vehicle buyers remain woefully ignorant about even the basics,” says the survey. Few knew that hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) contain electric batteries, only two-thirds knew that HEVs use both gasoline and batteries, and many think that HEVs need to be plugged in.

Clearly, educating buyers on green vehicles is a major challenge. This isn’t unusual for any industry attempting a shift away from well-known technology, such as the shift from vinyl records to CDs, although the aim to “save the planet” would seem to give the carmakers an edge up. 

"The low grades consumers earned in our research indicate that alternative fuel marketers still have a long way to go to shift consumers towards purchasing non petrol vehicles," says Tim Englehart, senior vice president of Synovate Motoresearch in North America.

“Of course, the reality is that education is just one component to help consumers understand the benefits of alternatively powered cars, but it will not necessarily change their opinion – that will much more likely happen by price,” Englehart said.

Should Government Get Involved?

Many believe there is a role for governments to help educate consumers, and ensure that green cars are available and viable, while others believe that government shouldn’t get involved, especially in free market trade economies. Governments in the US are mandating that resources other than fossil fuels power a certain percentage of vehicles sold. Other governments are imposing strict emission standards, such as those in the European Union and its Euro 1 (1993) to Euro 6 (2014) directives. Non-European countries, such as Australia, have even adopted these Euro standards.

“Hybrids are being pushed via government agreements in certain markets and have had some level of success, without being hugely successful, depending upon the market… but overall electric vehicles are not being strongly pushed,” says Singapore-based Simon Clarke, Synovate Motoresearch Director, South Asia.

Clarke sees awareness and availability as the main hurdles to marketing green vehicles in Asia. “EVs are not yet widely available so they cannot be bought,” he says. “Where they are available, such as in China from BYD and others, there is a lack of infrastructure and the high cost will act as a barrier.”

Market Maturity

The marketing challenges are clearly different in mature versus emerging automotive markets. “The Asia markets are at different stages and have many different focuses,” says Clarke. “Japan has now adopted hybrid technology, with Prius the largest-selling model in Japan, and I would expect electric vehicles to see growth here.”  

China has seen tremendous growth in the auto sector but has been focused on selling any type of vehicle. “Green vehicles have yet to achieve a status position,” Clarke says. “While some cities (Wuhan and Shenzhen, for example) are pushing electric vehicles and are working with manufacturers, they don’t have the infrastructure. Electric vehicle taxi drivers are complaining about insufficient charging points and that they lose too much work time.”

India has also seen a rapid rise in the auto market but still has low awareness of hybrid vehicles. “The Honda Civic Hybrid is available as India's first hybrid vehicle, but it will take time to demonstrate the benefits,” Clarke says. “In Delhi, there has been a strong push for liquid natural gas-powered vehicles and all public transport (buses, taxis) have to be powered by gas, so the infrastructure is in place for these. Other cities in India are following this route, so other alternative propulsion will not be adopted any time soon.

“The challenge for manufacturers is to either look at a step approach, and introduce and push hybrid first followed by other technologies, as has been a natural progression in developed markets, or to push multiple technologies which might lead to more consumer confusion,” says Clarke.  “Multiple technologies could segment consumers based upon their particular vehicle need. But this could also prove difficult and expensive.”

Do Customers Want EVs?

Rolls-Royce Motor Cars (RRMC) recently introduced the 102EX, an experimental electric version of the Phantom. It also launched the website Electricluxury.com to determine: “Can electric motoring deliver a true Rolls-Royce experience?”

This is one of the many initiatives introduced by CEO Torsten Müller-Ötvös when he took the reigns of RRMC in April 2010. Formerly one of BMW Group’s top marketing executives, his track record includes leading the highly successful re-launch of the MINI brand. He’s not convinced that his customers will accept an electric-powered Rolls-Royce.

 “I need to make sure this investment will pay off and those cars are really accepted and bought by our customers,” says Müller-Ötvös. “We know that we have the most discerning automotive customers that you can imagine. The Rolls-Royce business is so different from what a regular, normal automotive business is. We have customers who are not accepting of compromises, not accepting no… they want the best.”

As Kermit the Frog said: “It ain’t easy being green”. It’s also not easy marketing green, especially when it comes to alternative-fuel automobiles.