Thinking about this
article and accompanying videos about the Changli Freeman electric vehicle makes me think about trending downward. So often, we talk about how things are more expensive than they were decades ago, at least in part because they are more feature-rich so there are gains in terms of the value of use. However, are things now over-engineered with more features than we really need? In the electric vehicle market and elsewhere, trading down could improve affordability and speed adoption. Is perfect the enemy of good enough?
If we take OFF some features and think about what is really needed for the job at hand, can a product line become more useful, more affordable (and thus hit mass market faster and to greater effect), more sustainable, and more productive? Computer people have long said that many people who use their laptops for internet browsing, email, writing docs, and maybe a spreadsheet or two spend too much on features they don't need (and which use a lot of power).
The key to product development is considering how customers use the product and what problems they need to have solved. However, do we really need one version of a product to cover ALL our needs? Maybe what customers really need is something that covers MOST of their needs. They can then rent or borrow something to cover for the atypical use. In EVs, that might mean needing an EV with enough range for running errands around town (e.g., grocery shopping, taking kids to school) and renting a pricier version with longer range for road trips.
Maybe feature-rich and value-added isn't always the way an industry needs to go for growth. Sure, there are now some amazing features on our cars, our computers, our appliances…but perhaps there is room for products that are extremely efficient but just “good enough” in terms of additional function. The high-end market is great, but perhaps it can remain just that and not all the super-cool features need to trickle down to the mass market.
Freedonia analysts will continue to consider possibilities from the nice-to-haves to the features that solve most problems weighing what is needed for adoption to rise.
For more information and discussion of opportunities, see The Freedonia Group’s extensive collection of
off-the-shelf research, including
Global Vehicle Sensors and
Global Hybrid & Electric Vehicles.
Freedonia Custom Research is also available for questions requiring tailored market intelligence.