- Number of Americans that own an EV has climbed from 4 to 7 percent in a year
- But number seriously considering buying one fell from 12 to 9 percent
- Proportion not planning on buying an EV now stands at 48 percent
For EV proponents in the auto industry and in government departments trying to hurry up our conversions to electric power, there’s a little good news and a lot of bad news in new poll figures from Gallup. The good is that more Americans than ever before say they own an EV. The bad is that almost half of those not in that camp have no intention of joining it.
Gallup’s data found that EV ownership grew from 4 percent to 7 percent between March 2023 and March 2024. But that’s about the only figure in the study likely to bring cheer to the U.S. government, which had hoped until recently that 60 percent of new vehicle production would be made up of EVs by 2030.
Related: Forget EVs, Its Hybrids That Are Really Switching People On To Electric Power
Because the same research found that the number of Americans who say they are seriously considering buying an EV in future has dropped from 12 percent to nine percent, and those who might consider buying one fell from 43 to 35 percent. But most worrying of all for anyone tooling up for a huge EV or battery factory, the proportion of U.S. drivers who say they have no intention of buying an electric car, truck or SUV in future has increased from 41 to 48 percent.
It probably won’t come as much of a surprise to learn that there’s more to the numbers than that, and that ownership and ownership intentions varies wildly depending on the polled person’s age, income and political leanings.
Drivers aged 64 and under were far more likely to already own an EV than those over 65, and drivers under 50 were more likely to be open to the idea of EV ownership than those older than them. And given the high price of EVs relative to combustion-powered cars it’s understandable that Americans earning less than $40k are far less likely to own an EV or be thinking about buying one.
Democrat voters and those who class themselves as liberal are most likely to already own an electric car or be considering one, and there’s a predictable gulf in attitude that aligns itself with how much buyers care about the planet. Those who only worry a little, or not at all, about climate change are the least likely to own or be getting ready to own an EV.
