Yes, this is interesting.
I’m in Europe, where GM is small, Ford smaller, and Chrysler almost non existent. I live in a big city (Vienna) but ride my bike nearly every day, so I get to see a lot of cars that I move by slowly. Koreans (Kia/Hyundai) are big here, and VW is huge. BMWs and Mercedes are ubiquitous. Japanese cars area also ubiquitous.
Of the electrics I see, Tesla S was first of course, but that was a few years ago. I do see quite a few Model 3s, but very few Xs and I’m not even sure I’ve seen a Y. Some Hyundai IONIC 5s. Some Hyundai/Kia Hybrids. Some Yarises. Quite a few Mustang Mach Es considering they are brand new here.
Now we get to the crux of the matter. Roughly 40 % of taxis are Toyota Hybrids. Mostly Priuses, very many Honda CRVs. For short taxi rides of course they are completely electric. It used to be 80% of taxis were Mercedes C class. Priuses have gone from 5 to about 30% of all taxis in roughly 5 years. And growing.
So when Toyota and Honda go BEV, there will be a huge number of people who have driven or riden in one, and everyone will have been seeing huge numbers them every day for about 10 years. That goes a long ways towards acceptance.
I understand that the US and European markets are vastly different. When I lived in Texas for 12 years, roughly 80% of all vehicles were some kind of truck. Here roads are narrow and gas costs 4x as much, so demographics are very different.
That being said, the EU has about 750 million people, and our average income is probably higher than the US. That being said, you don’t need a car here like in the US, so we still have about 50 million fewer cars than the US (240 million vs. 290 million).
Toyota, Honda, VW and KIA/Hyundai all have a huge number of midsize vehicles already. Zee Germans have a home field advantage and national pride. And except for VWs diesel fraud, they all have great reputations. For example: The eGolf follows a tradition of Golfs going back nearly 50 years.
And don’t forget what is waiting in the wings here. VW bought 1/2 of SEAT and 1/2 of Skoda a long time ago. Each of those brands dominate their home markets of Spain and Czechia (respectively) and Skoda is all over central Europe (SEAT less so). The midsize E platform for VW, once it is rolled out and established with VW and Audi (Audi and Porsche are already making inroads into Type S sales) will underpin SEATS and Skodas as well, with manufacturing from the Atlantic half way to the Black Sea.
OK. I’ve rambled on long enough…
[edit] somehow lost a couple sentences — now added back in
