A recent survey from AAA found that interest in electric vehicles amongst consumers in the US now rivals that of full-size pickup trucks.
It’s hard to know how to interpret the findings, though, since so many more people drive large pickup trucks in the US than drive electric vehicles. And I’ll say here, I’m more than a bit skeptical that there are more people in the US interested in driving a fuel-equivalent-efficient EV around than driving a full-size pickup that they can create roadkill with and tailgate people with.
So, how to interpret the findings then? I suppose simply as the finding that interest in EVs is continuing to grow … something that we already knew, and which makes sense considering that most people in the US don’t even know what an EV is (or think that it’s a Prius).
There is more to it than that, though. Green Car Reports provides more: “Specifically, 15% of participants said they were likely to purchase or lease an electric vehicle as their next car, against a 16% interest in leasing or purchasing a truck. Among millennials, the figure was even higher: 20% said they were likely to park an EV in their driveway in the coming years.
“But, the caveat for some 30 million Americans eying up an electric vehicle is range anxiety, which ranked as the biggest concern for potential owners. In the survey, 69% said there simply aren’t enough charging stations, and 68% of respondents feared they would run out of charge before reaching their destination.
“Of course, manufacturers are attempting to work around that by developing vehicles with ranges of 200 miles or more per charge, but those are just now entering the market at affordable prices (below, say, $40,000).”
An interesting related finding is that around 43% of those surveyed said that their next vehicle would be a car — which is interesting considering the number of trucks and SUVs you see on the road.
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