One Big Reason Electric Cars Still Aren’t Popular With Americans (With The Exception Of…

The sad truth is, electric cars are not popular in the U.S.

A big factor is that Americans know little about EVs. A recent study from John Helveston of the Department of Engineering Management and Systems Engineering, George Washington University, and Laura Roberson offers some reasons and remedies for the low adoption rate of EVs.

“We…find that the vast majority of respondents were unable to correctly answer basic knowledge questions [about EVs],” according to the the study, “Electric vehicle adoption: can short experiences lead to big change?”

The study pointed to prior research by others, which found that consumers “lack basic knowledge about many aspects” of EVs. That includes things like purchase price, recharging time, driving range, electricity costs, and maintenance.

In one case, only 18% of the respondents in the study were able to answer a basic question about “plug-in” versus “gasoline refueling.”

“There’s huge promise for EVs once people get in them and learn about them,” Helveston told me in an email.

“Unfortunately, most people know very little about them, and few have even seen one let alone ride in one,” he added.

The study also offered a potential remedy: a quick three to five minute ride in an EV.

“Our study shows that having a direct experience — even for just a few minutes — with with a [plug-in electric vehicle] could be important for changing public opinion about PEVs on a mass scale,” the study said.

That jibes with my own experience. A short ride in an EV is usually a pleasant shock to those that had previously expressed a lack of interest in EVs.

As a footnote, the study did make one exception: Tesla. It noted its market success as an anomaly in an otherwise relatively flat market year to year.

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Notes:

*My experience over the years when asking friends and acquaintances (and strangers) about EVs is a basic lack of faith that an electric car can get them from point A to point B reliably. And invariably that’s because they have little knowledge of EVs. And the reason for that is simple: they’re not interested.

Comments or suggestions can be sent to me via a direct twitter message at twitter.com/mbrookec or mbcrothers at gmail dot com.