A Wild Card Now, 'Peapod' Could Be Key Influence on Future of NEVs
By John O'Dell February 13, 2009
Peapod, originally by Chrysler-owned Global Electric Motorcars, is now built by a separate subsidiary.
By Dale Buss, Contributor
Executives of America's nascent NEV industry are on the edges of their little seats these days about two major, unresolved issues that will mightily influence their market in the years ahead.
One of them is obvious: the fate of electric-vehicle tax credits and other goodies included in the $789-billion federal stimulus package that is expected to be voted on and approved by Congress later today.
The other is neither as immediate nor as obvious -- but it could have just as significant an impact on the future of low-speed NEVs -- neighborhood electric vehicles.
"It" is the combination of Peter Arnell, the branding guru often associated with Chrysler, and Peapod Mobility LLC, the Chrysler-owned NEV maker that he now heads.
Arnell has designed a stylish NEV concept that looks -- well, like a smiling peapod, and a dramatic stylistic contrast to the squarishness of nearly all existing NEVs. He's the lead director of Peapod, which Chrysler just spun off from GEM, its long-established NEV market-leader.
Arnell (left) has declared that he wants to energize the NEV business by aiming Peapod at 20-somethings, who have been largely an afterthought to NEV makers.
"You know how the Beetle was the vehicle of choice for the whole '60s, the hippie revolution and everything?" he recently told Brandweek magazine. "We're hoping that this becomes the new-wave car for the younger set as well as addressing mom and her needs with her kids."
Small Footprint So Far
If Arnell and Peapod are able to elevate NEVs from a sideshow in the electric-vehicle sweepstakes into a true cultural phenomenon, the industry could be transformed.
But there's a lot of ground to cover between now and then -- and it's going to take a while in vehicles whose regulated top speed now is only 25 mph,
NEVs, of course, have been around for more than a decade. They resemble but are sturdier than golf cars, have all-electric powertrains, and can be plugged into regular 110-volt outlets for recharging. Generally, they are priced in the $10,000-$12,000 range.
All NEVs must have head- and taillights, a windshield, and other carlike features. But federal regulations limit their maximum loaded weight to 3,000 pounds and don't require all the safety systems a full-function car or truck must have.
Outfitted as cargo haulers and in other useful configurations, NEVs have become popular fleet vehicles for government agencies, college campuses, corporate complexes, parks and recreational sites, and other delivery- and maintenance-oriented customers.
For private use, they're practical mainly in self-contained neighborhoods such as golf-course developments, retirement clusters and gated communities, and planned towns such as Celebration and The Villages, both in Florida.
A total of about 60,000 NEVs are now in use across America, the Electric Drive Transportation Association estimates.
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The 4-seat GEM e4 neighborhood electric vehicle.
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GEM, the Chrysler unit based in Fargo, N.D., has sold about 40,000 of that total over the last decade, estimated Jennifer Watts, senior marketing manager at the association, based in Washington, D.C.
Questions
There's a push to raise the 25-mph federal limit on NEVs to 35 mph. But even with that their limitations seem destined to prevent them from becoming a mainstream substitute for, say, small gasoline-powered cars.
"Recharging needs to be readily available for that to happen, but it's not," noted Lincoln Merrihew, senior vice president of TNS Automotive, a Boston-based market-research firm. "And they need to have a longer range."
The small electric vehicles' appeal also is limited by their lack of robust air-conditioning systems and their poor drivability in rough weather, he said.
The federal-spending package now provides tax credits of about $2,500 for NEVs, Watts said.
If the final version still includes big breaks for such vehicles, it would greatly boost demand for them.
NEV producer Columbia Par Car would add dozens of new jobs to its workforce of 500 people who already build its vehicles, said Greg Breckley, marketing manager of the Reedsburg, Wis.-based company.
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A 2-seat Columbia Summit NEV
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"Demand for our vehicles also would follow along if infrastructure spending in general takes a big upswing" under the federal stimulus plan, he said.
At this point, however, there's still too much fine print to know exactly how the legislation will affect NEVs, said Joan Michelson, GEM's marketing director.
Human Wild Card
The effects of Arnell's entry into the NEV industry are just as unclear at this point, but they could be profound.
Arnell is president of the Arnell Group, a unit of the Omnicom marketing agency, and has worked for Fortune 500 corporations ranging from Johnson & Johnson to Unilever to PepsiCo. His most notable recent achievement was designing the new Pepsi-Cola logo.
Arnell's relationship to NEVs came about because he is chief innovation officer for Chrysler. He did a similar stint with the company several years ago that didn't go too well. But Arnell became a favorite of current Chrysler CEO Robert Nardelli by applying his creative touch at Nardelli's former employer, Home Depot.
When he rejoined Chrysler last spring, Arnell's charge was to overhaul crucial areas including product design, in-cabin technology, branding and Chrysler's dealerships. Unfortunately, the depression in the auto industry has restricted most new initiatives at Chrysler.
Arnell, though, took a liking to the possibilities for NEVs and got into the green game via GEM.
He said this move was one of the "core assignments" given to him by Nardelli. And now, according to the Brandweek story, Arnell has taken a group of Chrysler engineers with him to take the Peapod concept out of GEM and turn it into a thriving stand-alone enterprise.
Mum's the Word
The small electric car boasts iPod integration, lightweight mesh seating, construction out of recyclable materials, a travel range of 30 miles, a 900-pound payload, rack-and-pinion steering, front-wheel drive, an on-board charger and zero emissions. It's supposed to retail for about $12,500.
Arnell also told Brandweek that Peapod is taking orders online and that delivery of the cars will start after Labor Day.
Initially, there will be six colors, he said, jumping to ten by the end of this year. A four-seater Peapod will be the first model, followed by a Twinpod two-seater late this year and then, next spring, a utility vehicle.
There's no doubt that Arnell's creativity and high profile could help energize the NEV market via Peapod.
After all, he's as much of a performance artist as a designer or marketing strategist. He very publicly slashed his weight a few years ago to around 150 pounds from about 400 pounds; he's appeared on Donald Trump's TV series, The Apprentice; and he has managed to generate outsized interest in Pepsi's new logo through the production of a 27-page document that purports to be his thinking behind its revamp.
But Arnell's plans for Peapod are both murky and dubious at this point, and he's doing little to clear them up.
After initially agreeing to an interview with Green Car Advisor about Peapod and other matters, Arnell canceled the session through a Chrysler spokeswoman who said he now is unavailable for comment, indefinitely.
Michelson, GEM's marketing director, also declined to comment on Peapod.
Neither gave reasons for the sudden silence.
Hip - and Young?
But Arnell disclosed to Brandweek about his plans for Peapod raised some big questions. Most prominent was whether it makes sense for any NEV maker - even one with as winning a design as Peapod - to target adults in their twenties as a primary market.
At this point, most NEVs in the private market are sold to the 50-plus crowd that lives in gated estates and planned communities. And the cars are almost always second or third vehicles in those households.
By contrast, twenty-somethings typically own one vehicle, and most live in or near cities where NEVs' speed limitations would be prohibitive. But GEM's Michelson insisted that the demographics of NEV ownership generally are getting younger and more diverse. And in his interview with Brandweek, Arnell noted that Peapod "has a lot of talk value and appeal."
He even suggested a youthful new name for the NEV classification: "Mobi."
LEAVE A COMMENT
If I were the guy responsible for marketing this happy-mobile, I would probably have the same expression on my face.
I believe the automotive term is "overcompensating". This is just an unusual direction.
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