New Study: Only 26% of U.S. households are familiar with EVs.

By Johnna Crider

Posted on August 4, 2022

A new study shows that only 26% of U.S. households are familiar with EVs but this is about to change. In the recent study by Parks Associates, it was noted that as Tesla became a household name, purchase intention for EVs has gone up 6%.

I wrote about this here, and Teslarati was invited to attend to the virtual session where Chris White, the senior analyst who conducted the study, led a virtual presentation.

According to the study,

“Only 26% of US broadband households report high familiarity with electric vehicles but that’s about to change. These sessions address the coming surge of EVs on the market, the potentially explosive EV growth in adoption, and the implications for consumers, the grid, and needed infrastructure.”

Electric Vehicles: A New Era for Consumers

During the virtual session, Chris White explained some of the findings of the study. Some of these include current EV owner demographics, EV owner interest in clean energy, EV owners’ high-tech affinity, lack of knowledge of EV features, and how other issues such as the chip shortage are affecting both EV and non-EV markets.

The report was based on data from Q4 2021.

Understanding Current EV Owners

Current EV owners are young affluent and have dual incomes. Many are from a multifamily environment and use their EVs for work and school.

They use their vehicles regularly. It’s important to highlight since EVs have the image of a rare or exotic car that doesn’t have enough range. This is changing.

As the EV market continues to grow, the demographics of the current EV owners will most likely change. For now, there’s a 16% high intention of purchasing EVs among non-owners. Previous that was 10%.

That number didn’t include the current EV owners who either want to add a new EV or replace an old one.

EV Owners 3x likely to use renewable energy

Chris White’s research showed that EV buyers are three times more likely to live in solar communities or have an interest in renewable energy powering their homes. They are also 2.5 to 5 times more willing to pay more for renewable energy.

The research shows that EV owners care about their carbon footprint and the impact on the environment.

EV owners are much more likely to own a security system or a smart home device than non-EV owners, according to the research

They xcare about technology and have a higher affinity for tech than non-EV owners.

Lack of familiarity with EV features.

One of the key points in the study shows that although EVs are more popular today, there is a lack of familiarity with their features.

Chris pointed out that 18% of the consumers polled indicated familiarity with EV features. That isn’t a lot.

Features that many aren’t familiar with include EV charging at home minimizing cost when automatically charging during off-peak hours, auto insurance savings for EV owners, second-life EV batteries reused as a power source in disaster areas, and available tax incentives.

Second-life EV batteries are expected to reach over $34 billion by 2027 according to Research and Markets. You can read more about this here.

EV Features that could persuade non-owners to buy an EV

The study included the top features that could persuade non-EV owners to switch to electricity. The number one feature was for an EV to run 400 miles or longer on a single charge.

During the session, Chris pointed out that this is still rare and that most EVs are in the 200-300 mile range.

Other features included widespread charging stations and electricity plans that make owning an EV more affordable than owning an ICE vehicle. These are coming and soon people will see for themselves that EVs meet the criteria they are looking for.

Purchase Inhibitors.

The number one purchase inhibitor that non-EV owners are concerned about are the cost of an EV and charging.

The research showed that 51% of the consumers who participated in the study cited charging-related issues.

Another issue was the lack of trust in the design of EVs,

Issues that impact both EV and non-EV purchases

We often see issues such as the semiconductor chip shortage and critical minerals for EV batteries impacting the EV market. However, something that impacts both markets includes the chip shortage, Putin invading Ukraine, and the national gas prices being on the rise.

The latter can create pain at the pump which is something that encourages people to make the switch to EVs. Last month, I wrote about Dobson who purchased a Tesla due to several factors but especially high gas prices.

EVs will be everywhere soon.

The research also revealed that soon, EVs will be everywhere.

Chris spoke about the Amazon and Rivian partnership, Walmart’s purchase of Canoo EVs, Revel’s fleet of Tesla taxis in New York, and the contract between NASA and Canoo.

And this is just on the commercial side. Other automakers are producing and marketing their own EVs to compete with Tesla.

Disclaimer: Johnna is long Tesla. 

I’d love to hear from you! If you have any comments, concerns, or see a typo, you can email me at johnna@teslarati.com. You can also reach me on Twitter @JohnnaCrider1

New Study: Only 26% of U.S. households are familiar with EVs.