GenZe: Will Mahindra's electric two-wheeler change consumers' love for cars in US?

WASHINGTON, DC: Objects in the American auto industry’s windshield may be smaller than they appear,” ran the opening line of a recent story on the United States auto industry.

The narrative centred on the prospective decline of the sector following the cooling of American’s love affair with cars. Which is why, if you haven’t noticed, Americans — and indeed auto companies from the rest of the developed world — have begun flooding India with their wares.

By the way, this is not the first sector where Americans have bequeathed their excess to the Third World: from smoking to consumption of junk food, America’s hand-me-down gifts are many, even as the US tries to clean up its own air and body.

Now that’s a whole different story we’ll tackle another time. But what if the object in the American auto industry’s windshield is not merely a shrinking domestic market, but an even smaller foreign-minted vehicle… like say, an electric-powered two-wheeler?

Would it sell, and ride, in a country that is not only addicted to gas, but has had a century-old love affair with the car? As the Americans would say, geddouttahere! But that’s what this outrageous, audacious story is about: An Indian company that thinks its electric two-wheeler can spark off a revolution in the US. Dream on, did you say? Mahindra does.

Slowdown on the Highway

America is car country. From the time Henry Ford knocked together the first automobile and it broadly coincided with the discovery of a vast trove of oil and gas, America has been a country on the move — on four or more wheels. Never mind if only one or two people were in it, and never mind if the vehicle was idle and parked in a garage or parking lot or the street for 95% of its life span (imagine an airplane being parked for 95%; the airline would go bust in no time).

No one ever questioned this model. Assembly line production + easy finance + cheap gas + expansive road network = auto heaven. What’s there to complain? Driving, and first car ownership, has been a rite of passage in America. More songs have been written about cars and driving in America than two-wheelers and riding.

From Don McLean, who drove his Chevy to the levee as he said bye bye to Miss American Pie, to Bruce Springsteen, who loved a girl for her Pink Cadillac with crushed velvet seats, to Tracy Chapman, who asked her man if his fast car was fast enough so they could fly away, cars have been celebrated in more songs than the humble twowheeler (though folks like Arlo Guthrie did kick bike tyres). Oh, not to forget the commemoration in a dozens of movies, including the animated Cars, in which they star in the main role.

But somewhere down the road, it appears the American auto industry has hit a bump, dislodging a few shibboleths in the process. It has been coming for years, but it has gotten noticed only in the past year or two. In 2012, analysis of census data by the University of Michigan’s Transportation Research Institute showed that 9.2% of US households didn’t have a car, compared with 8.7% in 2007.

GenZe: Will Mahindra"s electric two-wheeler change consumers" love for cars in US?