Study: 60 Percent of U.S. Drivers Haven’t Heard of—Or Know Little about—Electric Cars

http://blog.caranddriver.com/study-60-percent-of-u-s-drivers-havent-heard-of-or-know-little-about-electric-cars/

The survey of 2557 Americans asked, “Which of the following best describes your knowledge of electric vehicles?” About 60 percent picked the multiple-choice answers “I’ve never heard of electric vehicles” or “I’ve heard of electric vehicles but I don’t know much about them.” Furthermore, 80 percent of those questioned had never driven or been a passenger in an electric car...

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There are some more results from that survey in the article... some are disappointing misperceptions (IMHO), but not entirely surprising.

cwerdna said:

There are some more results from that survey in the article... some are disappointing misperceptions (IMHO), but not entirely surprising.

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Good article and survey. Thanks!

And I agree the results are not at all surprising. The article also captured one point that I feel is key:

Tony Markovich of Car and Driver said:

“There are signs of strong latent demand in the marketplace,” said Moe Kelley, co-director of the survey.

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OTOH, I think they have really missed the mark in one of their main conclusions:

Tony Markovich of Car and Driver said:

Unsurprisingly, AVC’s analysis of the survey indicated that there would be an uptick of growth (AVC estimates 24 times the current market) for the electric-car industry if the vehicles were priced lower, specifically around $35,000.

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:?: Sorry, but that's not what is holding people back. BEVs have been available below that price for six years now (both with or without incentives). No, what is holding back BEV acceptance is the lack of sufficient range when new and over the expected life of the vehicle and in all climate conditions at that price point. Period.

Until electric cars that meet many more people's range expectations are available, acceptance will be tepid, at best. I was kinda hoping the Chevy Bolt was gonna help in a big way here, but it seems they are limiting availability to CARB states for the time being. (Not to mention that whenever I mention the Chevy Bolt to someone, 90% of the time people respond with "Oh, yeah, I know about the Volt." Either I am incapable of enunciating that word well enough or Chevy chose a really silly soundalike for their new BEV.)

I have like no held the view that manufacturers drop the ball in cold weather.

My insight meets EPA in below zero weather

My Chrysler and GM products all perform poorly in cold weather.

RegGuheert said:

Until electric cars that meet many more people's range expectations are available, acceptance will be tepid, at best. I was kinda hoping the Chevy Bolt was gonna help in a big way here, but it seems they are limiting availability to CARB states for the time being. (Not to mention that whenever I mention the Chevy Bolt to someone, 90% of the time people respond with "Oh, yeah, I know about the Volt." Either I am incapable of enunciating that word well enough or Chevy chose a really silly soundalike for their new BEV.)

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I honestly don't think Chevy WANTS to sell the Bolt more than they have to in order to meet their CARB ZEV credits, honestly. Originally I was excited as well, until I saw how half-hearted their effort seems to be.

So 40% had heard of BEV/PHEV? Surprised it is that high.

RegGuheert said:

whenever I mention the Chevy Bolt to someone, 90% of the time people respond with "Oh, yeah, I know about the Volt." Either I am incapable of enunciating that word well enough or Chevy chose a really silly soundalike for their new BEV.)

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Bring on the Ford "Colt" and the Peugeot "Dolt"!

I have actually seen people on this forum that bought a Leaf even though they knew so little about it that they are mad that it doesn't get the 120 miles range that the salesman told them it would in the winter. And we had a customer that bought a Mercedes B Class which has about 28kWh useable, drove it all weekend, Plugged it's little L1 charger in Sunday night, and couldn't make it home from work the next day. He called us up furious when he read the manual to find that it might take 30 hours to charge on L1. After he bought the car. And these are buyers. Imagine how little the general public knows.

sendler2112 said:

And we had a customer that bought a Mercedes B Class which has about 28kWh useable, drove it all weekend, Plugged it's little L1 charger in Sunday night, and couldn't make it home from work the next day. He called us up furious when he read the manual to find that it might take 30 hours to charge on L1. After he bought the car. And these are buyers. Imagine how little the general public knows.

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And, I'd head all sorts of BS in my recent B-Class ED test drive from the ride along guy at the SF Auto Show. He said something like 3-4 hours to charge and 6-8 hours at home. I believe for the latter, he was implying L1. Ha!

I was busy test driving (lots of cars and traffic) and time was running out before all test drives would end. No time to discuss or correct him. He clearly wasn't a BEV driver.

Great thread. It hits on one of the real problems. Education. I did a lot of research before buying the Leaf. I got very little education from the dealer. They were ok but nothing about the charging infrastructure or real world range. They didn't give any false information just didn't give much at all. I'm pretty sure I knew way more about the car than the sales person did.

I am in no way dissatisfied with my purchase. I knew going in what my daily requirements were and what the car was capable of providing. It actually performs better than I expected.

The question I have is how do we get all the knowledge that resides here on this forum out to folks so they can make an informed choice whether and EV is right for them.

In my case, I know that most of the cars I see on the road in my commute could easily be and EV and still work for people. My commute is 65 miles/ day year round in Vermont. My 2016 SV Leaf makes the round trip on a single charge with miles to spare running the interstate @ 60 mph with minimal heat.
I am totally happy. I do know once the car ages I will have to charge at work in the winter but I knew that going in.

I think there needs to be a library of info for those curious about EVs that is accessible to the masses. And also that is visible. This forum is great but you have to seek it out and sift through massive amounts of information. Well worth the effort but most folks don't eat to put that much effort into there cars. They want to get in and go where they want.
All the folks that stop and ask about my car when I am charging really don't know much and are surprised by what I tell them.

I tell then that every use case is different. Once you look at you actual daily use and forget about that bucket list trip across the country EVs make a lot of sense. Almost everyone gives that lightbulb turning on in their head look.

People are afraid of what they don't understand and owning an EV still requires more planning than a lot of folks are comfortable with. I think though once they drive on a while after doing the research about whether they can actually get by with an EV they will take it in stride.

Yes there are newer cars coming with greater range but most of them other than the Tesla charge at the same rate. So all EVs are at the mercy of the charging infrastructure for longer trips. May be you can go further before charging but you will sit just as long as the shorter range car. Longer actually if you want that full range back. They benefits are of course the battery doesn't have to be used to it's full range all the time so it might last longer but all that is still being studied and is constantly evolving.

Anyway just some thoughts...

I'm sure these results would be wildly different based on demographic and geographic focuses and segmentation.

For 2016, 159,139 PEVs sold in the U.S. out of 17.5 million LDVs total, or .909%. Even if the fed. tax. credit doesn't get repealed, I wonder if GM will reach 200k PEVs total this year and lose it. They hit 100k in July? last year, and seem to have sold in the neighborhood of 12-13k since, so while still unlikely it's possible depending on how the Bolt does. [Edit] Looks like they;d sold 25,304 by the end of 2015, and are at 128-129k at the end of 2016, so about 72k left. If Volt sales average around 2k/month, the Bolt would need to sell about 48k in 2017 to reach the threshold. Possible, but probably unlikely.