What Happened to All the Green Cars?
March 17th, 2017 by Sara
We buy, sell, and trade a lot of cars but we don't see that many green ones here at Island Ford
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March 17th is here. While we all don our green clothes, we don't all hop into a green car. Why not? The 2017 Volkswagen Beetle comes in a deep shade of green called Bottleneck Metallic, and the older ones had that almost pastel shade of green. Maybe you were envious of the 2014 Ford Fiesta that came in the almost neon color Green Envy Metallic. In fact even bigger vehicles like the Honda CR-V come in a shade of green, yet green cars on the streets are few and far between. Today we are looking into why there are so few green cars available, and on the street.
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For starters, what does a green vehicle say about you? According to Today "Dark green: Well-Balanced, trustworthy, traditional; Light green: Organic, no-fuss, understated."
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According to the Daily Mail the reason you may find so few green cars could be that they don't hold their value well
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Looking at this chart, the cars that hold their value their best are white, Indigo, Purple, and Pink. Meanwhile, Maroon, Turquoise, Green and Gold, simply don't.
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Another source suggests that the reason you see so many black/white/silver cars on the road is all of the different recession stages we went through from the 1900's to the 2000's. From World Wars to economic crisis in the 30's, to the gas crisis of the 70's, consumers' color choices slowly became more bland, even as more new colors were created. Another big influence of car color is potentially the phone in your hand Quirk suggests.
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The other reason you may see so few green cars dates back to 1910, and 1920. In 1910 Lee Oldfield ended up in the grandstands after a wreck at the New York State Fair in Syracuse. In 1920, Gaston Chevrolet got into an accident with another car at the Beverly Hills Speedway that resulted in three deaths, including his own. These two accidents in green cars supposedly mark the beginnings of the superstition that green cars are unlucky, according to King, who goes on to point out that this superstition is slowly going out of style as cars with green wraps win NASCAR races.
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As for the other type of green (the better for the environment kind, not the color). Although consumers don't seem to be buying them in hoards, there are quite a few green vehicles to choose from. Tesla offers a line of completely electric vehicles, then there are plug-in hybrids like the Ford Fusion Energi, or hybrids like the Toyota Rav4, none of which come in the color green.
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Why aren't there that many on the road? The Detroit Free Press offers an analysis. The two main problems appear to be:
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A lack of education. When it comes to green vehicles, you have three different options: hybrid, plug-in hybrid, and completely electric. A hybrid has an electric motor that it can draw energy from, however, the main source of energy is the gas-powered engine. Just like a non-hybrid, you have to fill it up with gas when the tank gets low. A plug-in hybrid uses a battery as the main power source, and then switches over to the gas motor to extend the range. The important thing to note is that it needs to be plugged in to charge, and it still needs gas. An electric vehicle on the other hand, operates with an electric motor, and only uses electricity as an energy source (no gas, just plugging it in like you would your phone).
The Range. The Plug-in hybrids can offer some impressive numbers (610 miles EPA-estimated range on the 2017 Ford Fusion Energi, which is more than 900 KM), but completely electric cars can't go that far on a single charge. The Nissan Leaf gets you about 172 Km.
That's our St. Patrick's day look at the history of green cars. From all of us at Island Ford, happy St. Patrick's day and drive safe, no matter what color your car is.