Study Finds Interest in Electric Vehicles Remains Flat

A Harris Poll of 2,225 US residents conducted in May found that consumer interest in full-electric and electric-assisted vehicles hasn't changed in the past two years. Sales numbers back up the survey's findings, with 2015 sales of EVs and hybrids still pegged at the same three percent of total US car sales that they were in 2012. That will mean more than a half million of them should find new homes this year, but as large as that number is, it's still practically flat.

According to respondents, consideration for such vehicles has stayed steady or increased slightly since 2013: the same 48 percent would consider a traditional hybrid, 29 percent would consider a plug-in hybrid and 21 percent an EV, both numbers up two percent. Yet further adoption is being held up by concerns over price and range, in that order, with buyers categorized as "mature" having the greatest reservations in both areas, while millennials have the least concern. Across the survey, in fact, there's a steady progression of increased acceptance or decreasing concern across age groups as they progress from millennials to Gen Xers, Baby Boomers, and matures.

The survey found that men are eight percent more likely to consider an EV than women. We want to know what the survey results will look like in a couple of years, when much more affordable electric vehicles with vastly increased range get them in the same neighborhood with ICE vehicles. The Tesla Model X and Model 3, Tesla competitors from BMW and Porsche, the Chevrolet Bolt, and the next-generation Nissan Leaf should offer strong support to get those survey numbers moving.

You can click through to The Harris Poll for the complete findings.