A funny thing is happening in the electric vehicle world right now. Tax credits are gone. Car companies are backtracking. New electric car sales are way, way down. Yet the number of American car shoppers who are interested in going electric is holding strong.
“I'm honestly a bit surprised where consideration is at following the discontinuation of the federal tax credit,” Brent Gruber, executive director of the EV practice at JD Power, told me. “In that time, we've seen that the interest hasn't diminished, and in many cases, it's increased.”
Last month, 26% of car shoppers said they’d be “very likely” to consider buying an EV, up three percentage points from the previous month, a recent JD Power survey found. The portion who reported being “very unlikely” to go electric dropped by four percentage points to 18%.
View Price on AmazonOne driving force may be obvious: A gallon of gas now costs more than $4.50, up from just under three bucks before the war with Iran. Gas prices have now remained high enough for long enough to shift attitudes towards EVs, Gruber said. Or maybe Americans are increasingly dubious that the conflict will end soon.
Affordability has always been a constraining factor, and it’s gotten worse since the tax credit ended, he said. On top of that, young people are the most interested in electric cars, but also the least likely to have the funds to buy them. Within the “very unlikely” cohort in JD Power’s survey, more than half would not pay any price premium for an EV.
Nearly three-quarters of those who were least likely to buy an EV said they needed at least 500 miles of range to consider one. And yet, JD Power’s research has found that the average American takes 2-3 road trips a year, and they typically are 200-300 miles. Range anxiety tends to fade once someone actually buys an EV, he said.
Source: insideevs.com
