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21. February, 1997
Out of focus ??
Are the customers focusing on the right things when buying wind
turbines?
When talking to customers today, it is frightening to hear that they focus almost
completely on buying the cheapest possible wind turbine. Of course the price of the wind
turbine is very important, and especially when the price is compared to the annual
production (the power-curve). But is the tendency right?
Let us take another example: What does a customer look at when he is buying a car?
Again, he is of course concerned about the price. But at the same time he is looking to a
great extend on the quality of the car, the expected maintenance costs, the interior
design, extra facilities, the expected lifetime, etc.. Generally he evaluates the car as a
whole. Depending on his situation, he puts more emphasis on some points than others.
As such, when the customers focus mainly on the price-ratio, and are not willing to pay
for quality, extra facilities, etc., then the manufacturers will have to develop cheap
models in which the quality and the components are not the best. But still......the model
functions. But for how long??
When buying a cheap car, we know that this car will not last for as long as for example a
Mercedes. We also expect that the maintenance costs are higher on the cheap car, as the
components that are used on this car are of course much cheaper than on the Mercedes.
The situation is the same with wind turbines. If the customers only focus on getting the
cheapest wind turbine with the largest rotor, this is what he will get. It is very simple
to produce an inexpensive wind turbine with a large rotor......but it is very difficult to
do this without cutting some edges on the quality.
It is obvious that it is not good for the business that the customers are almost
completely focusing on the price. Even though the customers will get their cheap wind
turbines, the business will most likely see the problems of these cheap turbines in maybe
5, 6, 7 or 8 years.
At Nordex Balcke-Dürr GmbH we do not really like the concentrated high focus that many
customers have on the price. Our policy has always been to produce with the right quality,
and not to cut all the edges on our wind turbines. This also means that our turbines are
often a few percentages more expensive. But we are convinced that quality pays in the long
run for any customer, and even though we are constantly improving our products, we are not
ready to cut on the quality.
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