New survey from Deloitte shows only 5% of U.S. consumers want an EV
-
Via Ars Technica:
https://arstechnica.com/cars/2025/01/only-5-percent-of-us-car-buyers-want-an-ev-according-to-survey/
There is a link to the actual survey in the article, but it did not display for me.
-
Widespread adoption is just not realistic in the US, especially out west. It works in metro areas but the western states are so spread out it's not feasible in outlying areas.
They're quite popular in Phoenix though, I see Tesla Rivian and Lucid everywhere. Even a Fisker here and there.
-
@edwardp americans citizen consume 25 percent ofworld consumption mostly by top 1 percent rich .
Shows their mindset and how poor middle class dont understand climate-change -
@joeimp Most of the mid-west has superchargers; in North Dakota, drivers would have to rely on 11kw chargers at hotels. New stations are constantly being added in response to demand.
A daily commute of 100 miles each way is perfectly feasible in a Tesla, unless you’re towing or driving in snow. A long-range rear-wheel drive Model Y has a WLTP range of 387 miles. A real-world range of about 220 miles in the cold is more realistic.@edwardp
“Posts on X from early 2025 claim only 5% of U.S. car buyers want an EV, but these figures lack clear sourcing and may reflect sentiment rather than robust data.The takeaway? Interest fluctuates between roughly 25% and 44% depending on the survey and timeframe, with a core of 5% to 16% showing strong intent or ownership.” (Grok)
Hybrids are gas cars, so they should be excluded from any survey of EVs. Current negative sentiments of demand for Teslas, which sell by far the most BEVs, are linked to “Elon is a Nazi” propaganda. There has been a spate of attacks on Tesla vehicles and showrooms.
-
@Pesala Recently, there was a news report out of central Massachusetts (U.S.), where a doctor had purchased a Cybertruck to advertise his medical spa. His vehicle was recently vandalized. He is trying to sell it but no one wants it, not even Tesla.
https://www.nbcboston.com/news/local/mass-doctor-gold-cybertruck-response/3632199/
-
This post is deleted! -
As a person from the Southwestern US, my next car will be an EV, but I can see why many people out here wouldn't want one.
It is fairly common where I live to have to drive around 483 km (300 miles) round trip every once and awhile to go to a larger city for shopping and the airport. An EV can do it, but it does take a bit more planning and some delays if a critical charger is offline.
It is something I am willing to put up with for the many benefits of EVs, but for my parents, I am recommending a plug in hybrid. Perfect for pure EV around town driving, but less of a hassle for the longer trips. The mess of different charging network accounts / apps, needing things like A Better Route Planner and Plug Share, and the occasional charger issue are things I know my parents would have issues with, but it does get easier and easier to use an EV out here as time goes on.
Looking forward to a nice Hyundai or KIA EV in my future (definitely not a Tesla)!
-
@nomadic said in New survey from Deloitte shows only 5% of U.S. consumers want an EV:
Looking forward to a nice Hyundai or KIA EV in my future (definitely not a Tesla)!
I hope you never get into a bad accident. The driver of this Model 3 walked away with minor scratches after a truck fell on his car.
Spoiler
FSD can avoid most accidents, but in the worst case, you want to be inside the strongest cabin space.
-
@Pesala said in New survey from Deloitte shows only 5% of U.S. consumers want an EV:
I hope you never get into a bad accident. The driver of this Model 3 walked away with minor scratches after a truck fell on his car.
Not really relevant. You can find similar stories for almost any car brand; luck is more of a factor than any build quality considerations. Notice how the trailer in that image is what fell on top of the cabin space. While it does appear to be a refrigerated trailer, they are still much softer and less dense than the truck itself.
This is the most absurd example I found where the driver survived. Guess we should all be buying Nissans:
Spoiler
FSD can avoid most accidents, but in the worst case, you want to be inside the strongest cabin space.
FSD can also lull drivers into a false sense of safety and lead to inattentive drivers and more accidents. I personally just need a good adaptive cruise control system and want to handle the steering myself. Takes away the tedium of adjusting speed while still keeping you engaged and focused on the road.
-
@nomadic Yes, right. If it is just down to luck we can dispense with crash-safety testing and NHTSA or other government agencies regulating vehicle safety.
“Tesla cars are among the safest in all categories. Tesla Model S and Tesla Model X obtained a 5-star safety rating in every subcategory of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) crash tests. It's the maximum a car can score in NHTSA's tests.”
As someone who has studied structural engineering, I prefer to put my faith in good engineering and testing during the manufacturing process before cars get sold to the public.
As a Buddhist, I don’t believe in luck, but in kamma. Do stupid things, get bad results. Buying an inferior product to save money, or to be in fashion, will put you and your family at risk. If you can afford it, buy a Tesla with a HEPA filter to protect your family from road-level pollution.
Electric Vehicle Fire Myths. Hybrid vehicles are the most likely to catch fire, and BEVs the least likely. If you recommend a hybrid vehicle you are ill-informed. Maintenance costs are high, fire risks are the greatest, and running costs are generally less than ICE, but more than a BEV.
-
@Pesala Most EVs have great crash test ratings given their low center of gravity and more solid base. Hyundai and KIA EVs are no different. The KIA EV6, for example, only has one star off for the passenger in the
Frontal Barrier Star Ratings, but significantly fewer recalls and complaints than the Model 3...As someone who studied Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science, I too put my faith in good engineering. Implying that going with any car other than a Tesla means you are putting your life at risk is an extremely bad faith argument. As previously mentioned, almost all EVs have above average crash test ratings. If surviving a crash in an EV is your top concern, go with a Hummer EV; the bigger car arms race of crash safety will mean you will do better in most crashes. Sure you will be more dangerous to everyone else on the road, but you personally will be safer...
I don't believe in luck per se, just use it to describe the fact that some outcomes are low probability, and in events where that low probability outcome occurred could be called "lucky". I don't believe any external force is at play, just that the particular sequence of events happened to lead to a favorable result. No rabbit feet keychains or fairly common numbered of leaf clovers here. 9 times out of 10, when you get into a serious accident with a huge truck, the outcome wont be good, but in that 1 case where the small car miraculously survives, they write news articles about it. A truck falling on your car with the gap between the cab and trailer mostly lined up with the cabin of your vehicle is certainly "lucky" and is the type of thing that generates news stores rather than the expected result of another crash fatality.
If buying a car with a basically equivalent safety, that actually costs more, has a better set of controls (in my opinion), isn't a fashion statement as far as I know, and isn't tied to a problematic CEO is putting my family at risk, then it is fine by me. One thing I do know is that I can afford a $30 HEPA filter...
Honestly don't know why you are bringing up EV fire myths. I know hybrids have the highest risk of fire, but it is still low enough probability to not worry about. Maintenance costs are no different than a normal ICE and it is more economical than the plain ICE that would be the alternative. I already listed the reasons why an EV wouldn't make sense for my less patient and less technically inclined parents.
My decision to go with E-GMP car (Hyundai and KIA EVs) and recommend a PHEV for my parents was not decided on a whim. I have been closely following the space for around 7 years now. I read the /r/ElectricVehicles and /r/KiaEV6 SubReddits daily, read several news articles about EVs, and am subscribed to several EV centric YouTube channels like
Fully Charged Show,Out of Spec Reviews,Aging Wheels,Engineering Explained,TELO Trucks,Aptera Owners' Club, andTransport Evolved(but you might not like that last one, given your fragile views on gender, since they have more diverse hosts)...Life is all about making tradeoffs in attempts to make the best decision to meet your circumstances. Is a PHEV the ideal choice for most people, no, but it is the best for my parents.
You have made several bad faith arguments in your replies to this thread. If everything was as black and white as you make it out to be, everyone would be driving a Tesla. While they were THE electric car for awhile, other manufacturers have caught up and in some ways surpassed them in making an appealing EV.
Maybe take a step back and realize that you may be slightly biased in your view of Tesla given your investment into the company. You can debate about what hand gesture Tesla's CEO made, but it is clear the damage he is doing to the USA right now. When I see many of your posts here on the forum, I often wonder how you justify your Buddhist beliefs in regard to your idolization of that man who acts in such opposition to many of your core principles. Some introspection might be in order...
I should probably stop there. This post already has a good probability of being moderated, so there isn't really much point in continuing this discussion. I normally try to stay fairly neutral here on the forum, but I can make an exception every once and awhile...
-
@nomadic said in New survey from Deloitte shows only 5% of U.S. consumers want an EV:
your fragile views on gender
My views on gender are not fragile, since they are based on biological facts. Nikki of Transport Evolved does not claim to be a man. The success of her channel depends on the quality of the content, which is more about politics than EVs. I find that unhelpful, so I no longer follow the channel.
I bring up the fire safety myth, since it often affects purchase decisions, as does the myth that EVs are not suitable for long road trips, or the myth that cruise control is just as good as FSD.
This topic is about the alleged falling popularity of EVs, which is perhaps a result of false allegations made about Elon Musk being a Nazi. More likely, however, it is just a seasonal drop in sales, and the changeover of Tesla’s most popular car in the world, the Model Y, as the old inventory is sold off, and production of the new Model Y simultaneously ramps up across four factories: Fremont, Austin, Berlin, and Shanghai. Tariff wars undoubtedly affect local sales for imported cars.
As drivers become older, their ability to control the acceleration of an EV is open to question; which is why FSD is the key factor. IMO it is well worth the effort of teaching your aged parents how to use a Tesla as they will soon have to give up driving unless they have fully automated driving.
In the UK, trips of 300 miles are extremely rare, and if I still drove, I would not think of driving that long (5-6 hours) without at least one stop to recharge and stretch my legs.
-
I believe a major factor in whether or not electric cars are broadly adopted in a country (beside infrastructure development, car- and energy costs), is whether the technology is politicized or not. (You also see in this thread how fast politics played a higher role in the discussion instead of the technology) In Norway, for example, EVs quickly got very popular. While there were initially some benefits for buying an electric car (to get it going) there was no further political fiddling. Consequently, people probably didn't care what car someone else drove — and maybe even stayed open-minded if they saw an EV on the streets and open to learning more about it. Despite some disadvantages due to sometimes extremely cold temperatures, more than half of the cars on their streets are electric by now and new car registrations are over 90 % electric. That's a lot!
In comparison, the sales rate of electric cars in Germany is declining. This is because EVs were immediately politicized there. (And energy prices are extremely high). I'm an enthusiastic electric car driver for 5+ years and experienced firsthand how initially there was more of an open-minded atmosphere of interest into the new technology, and suddenly, it flipped, so people didn't want to know anything about the electric car anymore and immediately switched to a purely political debate. The driving technology was seen as a political statement, and this unfortunately harmed the sales as well. Additionally, there also were some bad political decisions that further increased the aversion for some. For example, special subsidies for electric cars ("envy debate") or even the idea of a combustion engine ban, which of course fueled the hate towards the EV community. And I think in the US it's still similar. EV or not was a "Democrat vs. Republican" debate for a long time as far as I heard it. Maybe shifted a bit since all the Elon stuff, but that caused more chaos IMO.
I believe if you don't politicize electric cars and don't want to ban the existing technology, it's better for the spread and acceptance of the "new thing". People first need to form their own opinion. The success of home computers, the internet and smartphones was basically a similar thing: Initially, there also were a lot of people who thought they didn't need it. Some even very vocal about that. But nowadays, no one wants to miss these things anymore.
-
@WerewolfAX In the UK, the VW diesel-gate scandal did a lot of harm to people’s trust of government mandates. Consumers were persuaded that diesel was less polluting than petrol, then government mandates and Ultra-low emission zones in most of London penalised drivers of older ICE cars.
The carrot is usually better than the stick to change behaviour in the long-term. More attention should be paid to facilitating home-charging, low-cost public charging, or free charging at businesses.
Home-owners have Internet cables crossing under pavements, so why not allow contractors to cut a channel for charging cables, or enable charging from street light posts?
Norway is protected from high energy costs since it a major exporter of North Sea gas. The cold climate adversely affects the range of all vehicles; not just EVs.
Sweden is daft, allowing unions to obstruct the expansion of EV use with strikes affecting local business as well as EV importers.
The UK has the highest energy costs in Europe, and Germany shot themselves in the foot by shutting down nuclear too soon, and not cracking down hard enough on vandalism at Tesla, who provide battery storage as well as EVs.
-
@Pesala said in New survey from Deloitte shows only 5% of U.S. consumers want an EV:
Consumers were persuaded that diesel was less polluting than petrol
Such misinformation by UK Govt. Govt same world over. How many people believed? Any idea? What was result of such misinformation.
-
Why Americans don’t like electric vehicles (EVs),maybe:
-
Insufficient Infrastructure
The charging station network in some parts of the U.S., especially in rural areas or Midwestern states, is still underdeveloped. In contrast, gas stations are nearly everywhere, and refueling takes just a few minutes, while charging might take half an hour or more (even with fast chargers). For many people, this inconvenience is a big issue. -
Price and Economics
The upfront cost of electric vehicles is usually higher than that of traditional gas-powered cars. Although electricity costs less than gas in the long run, many Americans focus on the immediate purchase price. Additionally, rumors about expensive battery replacement costs deter some people, even though the reality isn’t quite as extreme. -
Range Anxiety
While EV range has been improving, it still can’t fully compete with gas-powered cars, especially for long-distance driving. Cold weather can also significantly reduce battery efficiency, which is a real concern for people living in northern states. -
Culture and Preferences
In American car culture, gas-powered vehicles—especially big trucks and SUVs—hold a significant place, and this preference is deeply ingrained. Some view electric cars as “not tough enough” or “not free enough,” especially options beyond Tesla, which may lack appeal in terms of performance or image.
-
-
@scfast001 Yes, most of the reasons are based on rumour or ingrained attitudes.
in North Dakota, drivers would have to rely on 11kw chargers at hotels. New stations are constantly being added in response to demand.
- Like for like, Teslas are less expensive in the US, though they are still overpriced in the UK
- Cold weather will also significantly reduce the range of ICE vehicles. Survival time in a snow drifts is longer in an EV because the heat from the battery pack is recycled instead of being wasted by running the engine and throwing most of the energy out into the cold.
- Mostly it is a misperception. The Cybertruck is seen as ugly, but the torque, stainless steel skeleton, ride-height, and four-wheel steering make it good for towing and off-roading. It the ideal Farm Truck. The battery pack can run a welder or power tools, and it can power your house during a black-out.
-
Elon musk be like
-
@suyashbagade1 God-believers rely on faith. Elon and his followers (and Buddhists) rely on investigation of the facts. Elon is certainly no God, but he is a brilliant engineer with an IQ well above average, and a capacity for pain and sheer hard-work that is off the charts.
Electric motors are way more efficient than internal combustion engines, and the future clearly lies in AI, so Elon is investing heavily in AI. FSD in China can already deal with complex scenarios because it relies on cameras (eyes) and neural nets (a brain). Costs of batteries and motors will continue to fall with increased production. -
I have moderated some of the topics in this thread.
- Please don't use language that demeans trans people.
- Please avoid posting graphic photos of car crashes. I've put them behind spoiler shields for now.
