The 2020s has been the decade of the electric car thus far, something that can be credited to raw material suppliers, manufacturers, toll processors, designers and dealers, with each part of the supply chain playing their part in making EVs increasingly popular.

The recent Electric Car Grant has helped with this, with dozens of cars eligible for a discount based on their sustainability, low cost and functionality, giving drivers a greater incentive to choose a battery electric car rather than a hybrid.

These criteria, as well as solid design, technical features, range, reliability and driving feel, are often the difference between success and failure in the world of electric cars.

However, whilst there are lessons to learn from the Renault 5 EV, the Ford Puma Gen-E and the Citroen e-C5 Aircross Long Range, there are also lessons to learn from electric cars and manufacturers that missed the mark almost immediately.

Some EVs become either huge successes or at least reliable sellers that create a foundation for later success, whilst others become nigh-immediate flops.

Here are some of the reasons why, with some illustrative examples.

 

A Terrible Launch

Some of the most tragic examples of EVs failing to launch are quite literal cases of manufacturers with promising ideas and interesting prototypes throwing away all of their goodwill due to an astonishingly abominable launch.

In recent years, the most notable example of this was the Fisker Ocean, which initially looked highly promising but made the mistake of launching effectively unfinished.

The result was a swift and brutal disaster, with many car and technology reporters unsure how to review a car so clearly unfinished. Marques Brownlee of Auto Focus simply described it as the worst car he had ever reviewed.

Fisker had a similar failure to launch in 2011 with the Karma luxury saloon car. It remains to be seen if the third time is the charm for Fisker.

 

No Unique Selling Point

As the EV market has increased significantly in prominence and market share, it is vital to have a unique selling point that makes your EV more desirable than anyone else’s. Manufacturers such as Ford, Renault, and previously Tesla managed to sell electric cars that no other manufacturer could.

An example of what happens when you have no selling point can be seen with the Coda saloon car of 2011. Intended to be cheap and quick to launch, Coda used an existing Chinese saloon car as its base, and it immediately caused issues with its perception.

It was based on the Hafei Saibao, a car allegedly designed by legendary styling house Pininfarina, but was heavily based on a 1990s Mitsubishi Lancer saloon. 

It was ugly, dated and by the time it launched in late 2011, way behind the times. The company went bankrupt within months of its launch.

 

Immediate Obsolescence

One of the issues with electric car adoption up until recently was a lack of consistent infrastructure; every EV manufacturer could see the future, but their visions of it did not necessarily align with each other, and customers were wary of parting with their cash in case they ended up with a car they could not use.

One example of why customers might have a good reason to be wary was found with the bizarre Renault Fluence ZE.

When the Fluence came out, it was the first car to be designed with battery swapping in mind, with Renault believing that a potential solution to the problem of range anxiety and slow charging speeds could be found by creating easy ways to swap from an empty battery to a full one.

With that in mind, Renault partnered with Better Place, a pioneer in battery switching services. Unfortunately, within a year of the Fluence being released, Better Placed filed for bankruptcy, leaving any drivers who bought it and a lease for the battery out of luck.

Battery swapping is still being considered, but with fast charging solutions and better battery technologies evolving faster than reliable swapping technology, it may take some time before another company tries the idea again.

 

Terrible Unreliability

The Scottish Aviation Scamp was one of the first electric cars made in Great Britain, intended to be a cheap, affordable urban runaround. The problem was that it literally shook apart within just a few miles.

This is the story of a lot of failed EVs. The Tesla Cybertruck was infamous for its reliability issues that hit within days of the launch of the unusually shaped pickup truck, and halted interest in the vehicle outside of the die-hard enthusiasts.