Fewer than four in ten Americans have a favorable view of electric vehicles and charging remains a top concern, according to an exclusive DailyMail.com poll.
But opinions may be changing due to rising approval ratings among younger, Latino and Democratic voters.
The survey of 1,000 likely US voters of all ages found that 38% think positively about electric vehicles, while more than half of 18-30 year olds view them favorably.
Overall, only 28% said their attitudes toward EVs were “very negative” or “very negative,” and women were more hostile toward them than men.
Recent polls show that many in the United States oppose the aggressive shift from gas to electricity.
Experts cited rising electric vehicle prices and a lack of charging station infrastructure among the main concerns — and “range anxiety” remains the top barrier for Americans in the latest DailyMail.com poll.
Words like “charging,” “station,” and “batteries” appeared more frequently in participants’ written answers to their “biggest negative” about EVs in the new survey.
Are electric car critics out of the market? A new poll of 1,000 potential American voters showed that only 21 percent of Americans over the age of 65 approve of battery-powered cars. Pictured above is the Nissan LEAF electric vehicle at the charging station
The 65 and over age group was out of step with the overall average: A new DailyMail.com poll (above) found that nearly four in 10 likely American voters — or 38 percent of Americans of any age — believe Now positively about environmentally friendly transportation technology
The DailyMail.com survey collected the most common words participants use to explain their negative opinions or minor concerns about electric cars, and the results mostly focused on charging hassles and the lack of charging stations, closely followed by cost.
“Electric vehicles have a significant foothold with the American public: four in ten have a positive view, and three in ten have a more negative view,” said Joe Alder, senior research associate at JL Partners, who conducted the survey.
“This headline image can mask some deeper concerns under the hood, where nearly half of some demographics view vehicles in a negative light.
'Americans are concerned about the cost and inconvenience of operating an electric vehicle, especially given what many see as a lack of charging station infrastructure.'
While the Biden administration Announce ambitious goals To make 50 percent of all new vehicle sales in the United States electric by 2030, and invest $7.5 billion in EV charging and more than $7 billion in EV battery components, many are waiting to see the results.
There are about 2,442,270 electric vehicles are on U.S. roads, according to the rental car company Hertzor less than one percent of all cars in the country.
But these negative views on EVs appear to be generational and shifting, with Gen Z, Millennials and younger Gen Xers widely found to be more positive and enthusiastic about EVs than their elders.
Among likely American voters between the ages of 18 and 29, 52% approved of electric vehicles, and only 15% had an unfavorable opinion in the latest poll.
Among those aged 30 to 49, this approval was slightly higher, with 54% viewing EVs favorably and only 13% viewing cars unfavorably.
Another highly enthusiastic demonstration skewed heavily toward partisan stereotypes: An overwhelming majority of registered Democrats, about 55%, thought favorably of electric cars while only 15% opposed them.
Independents, true to their name, were almost evenly divided on their feelings on electric cars, with 31% approving, 27% disapproving, but most indifferent to the technology at 40%.
This uncertainty may reflect fundamental economic concerns.
“Too often, electric vehicles are still viewed as a rich man's pursuit, and Americans are not yet confident they can rely on the technology when the going gets tough,” Joe Alder, a pollster at JL Partners, told DailyMail.com. .
Gen Z, Millennials, and Gen Another highly enthusiastic demonstration veered heavily toward partisan stereotypes: A majority of registered Democrats, about 55%, thought favorably of electric cars.
Independents, true to their name, were almost evenly divided on their feelings on electric cars, with 31% approving, 27% disapproving, but most indifferent to the technology at 40%.
As one person put it, “What do you do if you're stuck on the road during a snowstorm and your battery dies?”
In fact, a real-world test of 22 of the most popular electric cars, conducted by Consumer Reports, found that 10 of them fell below the advertised range.
Range anxiety is when EV owners worry that they won't reach their destination before needing to charge. Taking long trips in an electric car can cause rifts between partners, as screenwriter and novelist Daisy Goodwin discovered in Italy.
Surprisingly, women were more skeptical of electric vehicles than men in the new poll, with only 22% approving of battery-powered vehicles compared to 44% of men.
The findings add a curious footnote to previous studies, such as research conducted by Dr. Michael Barnett at the University of Texas, Austin, which tracked masculinist views among 400 American men.
Nearly 40 percent of men rated EVs as the worst vehicle choice, with many of those respondents who voted against also holding more traditionally “masculine” views.
Last August, Dailymail.com revealed that it could take up to ten years to break even on an electric car, which is more expensive to buy but supposedly cheaper to run.
Despite the aspirations of environmentally friendly vehicles, the raw materials for electric vehicle batteries and devices have taken a huge toll on developing countries and their ecosystems.
Take cobalt, a chemical element found in almost every tech gadget that uses a lithium-powered battery, including an electric car battery that requires 10 kg.
Earlier this year, DailyMail.com revealed a series of shocking photos taken inside cobalt mines inside the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where 90 percent of the world's cobalt is mined.
The images raise uncomfortable questions for those leading efforts toward a sustainable energy future.
In 2020, for example, Tesla signed a multi-year deal to buy 6,000 tons of cobalt from British-owned mining giant Glencore, which operates a copper and cobalt mine in the Katanga region.
But Glencore was the subject of a 2019 lawsuit brought by a human rights advocacy group on behalf of the families of 19 Congolese children who died in a mine the company operated.
Awareness of these abuses amidst inequalities abroad may be why black Americans are less enthusiastic than Hispanics among those surveyed in a recent DailyMail.com poll.
About half, 48% of likely American voters who identified as black, thought positively about electric vehicles, while 18% viewed them negatively.
That's 20 percent lower than the Hispanic Americans surveyed, the demographic group most positive toward EVs, with 68 percent viewing them favorably and just 13 percent viewing green cars negatively.
The new DailyMail.com poll collected the most common words respondents use to explain their negative opinions or minor concerns about electric vehicles, and the results mostly focused on charging hassles and a lack of charging stations, closely followed by cost.
Both are issues that politicians have yet to rectify, despite $7.5 billion allocated in a recent infrastructure bill to incentivize the construction of more charging stations.
From a strict pocket money standpoint, electric cars sometimes appeal to buyers because they should save you money in the long run thanks to the cheap cost of electricity and some tax schemes.
According to car shopping website numbers Edmundsthe average cost of a new gas car in May was $47,892.
By comparison, a typical electric car costs $65,381 — or about $18,000 more expensive.
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