Research: EV owner experience vs. non-EV owners expectations

[AllenBukoff]

AutoThink Research has just released what we believe is the most extensive research exploration ever conducted of how North American drivers of internal combustion engine vehicles, hybrids, plug-in hybrids, electric vehicles, extended-range electric vehicles, and fuel-cell vehicles view electric vehicles.

Many of you here at Tesla Motors Club participated in this survey back in January-February. Thank you for your help! We promised we'd share the results.

The research carefully documents the many current misperceptions about EVs -- even among knowledgeable automotive enthusiasts and people working in the auto industry! Tesla Model S, Model 3, and Chevrolet Volt owners are the "happiest" EV owners. One of the biggest findings of the study: EV ownership and use and road-trip charging infrastructure are really much better than other drivers think. Tesla owners, especially, feel the least constraint and hassle when taking long distance road trips. But you're a Tesla owner and already know this!

View a quick one-page summary and the report's table of contents [ http://autothink.org/AbstractandTableofContents.pdf ] or download the entire 285-page report [ Electric vehicles - expectations vs experience -- AutoThink Research 2019.pdf ] .

autothink.org

 

[mblakele]

AutoThink Research has just released what we believe is the most extensive research exploration ever conducted of how North American drivers of internal combustion engine vehicles, hybrids, plug-in hybrids, electric vehicles, extended-range electric vehicles, and fuel-cell vehicles view electric vehicles.

Many of you here at Tesla Motors Club participated in this survey back in January-February. Thank you for your help! We promised we'd share the results.

The research carefully documents the many current misperceptions about EVs -- even among knowledgeable automotive enthusiasts and people working in the auto industry! Tesla Model S, Model 3, and Chevrolet Volt owners are the "happiest" EV owners. One of the biggest findings of the study: EV ownership and use and road-trip charging infrastructure are really much better than other drivers think. Tesla owners, especially, feel the least constraint and hassle when taking long distance road trips. But you're a Tesla owner and already know this!

View a quick one-page summary and the report's table of contents [ http://autothink.org/AbstractandTableofContents.pdf ] or download the entire 285-page report [ Electric vehicles - expectations vs experience -- AutoThink Research 2019.pdf ] .

autothink.org

Thanks for sharing your results.

Have you considered writing up the attitude-change model as a shorter document? Maybe 2-5 pages based on ca. p108-112.

 

[Brando]

Don't all BEVs have a backlog?? Where are there any sitting at Dealer Lots??

Since everyone is selling all they can/will make (and in the US they aren't even offered everywhere)
Seems this is a report looking for a problem.

Seems to me the real problem is batteries. right? AND actual offerings/production.

So who isn't selling?

[side note: report stops at 2018 Q1]

 

[tonybelding]

Despite this progress, actual consumer demand for these vehicles is lagging and growing very slowly (especiallyin the U.S.).
​

That seems like a dubious assertion right up front, to me. The year-on-year percentage growth in sales has been impressive from my viewpoint, and it's not even clear that "consumer demand" is what's holding them back. It seems like production is chasing demand, and there are still waiting lists.

 

[tonybelding]

EREV owners (e.g., Volt, BMW i3REx) are more similar in their views to EV owners than to the PHEV owners they are often lumped in with.
​

Uhh… This seems meaningless to me. EREV is GM's marketing term for a PHEV, and I doubt whether we'll be hearing it anymore since the Volt was discontinued.

 

[doug]

EREV owners (e.g., Volt, BMW i3REx) are more similar in their views to EV owners than to the PHEV owners they are often lumped in with.
​

Uhh… This seems meaningless to me. EREV is GM's marketing term for a PHEV, and I doubt whether we'll be hearing it anymore since the Volt was discontinued.

I haven't read the report, but nomenclature aside, I believe there is value in having a distinction between PHEVs that have enough range to cover daily use (thus rarely using gas) and those that don't. EREV is/was a marketing term at a time when hybrid meant a Prius. Other companies used REEV, Rex, and so on, EREV seems to have kinda stuck. I think EREV (while a subset of PHEV) is as good a term as any to make that distinction.

 

[Saghost]

I haven't read the report, but nomenclature aside, I believe there is value in having a distinction between PHEVs that have enough range to cover daily use (thus rarely using gas) and those that don't. EREV is/was a marketing term at a time when hybrid meant a Prius. Other companies used REEV, Rex, and so on, EREV seems to have kinda stuck. I think EREV (while a subset of PHEV) is as good a term as any to make that distinction.

I thought the key point with EREV was having full performance without turning the engine on.

There's a lot of overlap between your definition and that one, though.

 

[afty]

Neat study and nice writeup! A couple stray thoughts:

1) Is it that surprising that EV owners are more positive on EVs than ICE owners? We wouldn’t have bought the things if we didn’t believe they were better.

2) It appears that the survey was advertised solely on auto enthusiast forums, and the data on how knowledgeable respondents were about cars backs up the idea that your respondents were car enthusiasts. I have a sense that ICE owners who are also car enthusiasts are especially hostile to EVs. I wonder if this skewed your results. If you had surveyed non-enthusiast ICE owners, I suspect they would have been more positive on EVs.

 

[Brando]

I admit I can't get motivated enough to read this 285 page report.
(I barely got myself to look for interesting things in the 4 page table of contents.)

And just who takes a 50 page survey. ??

Title Page tells us a lot. Autoextremist is vocally against BEVs seen DeLorenzo on Autoline, right?

==============================================
CONSUMER VIEWS ABOUT ELECTRIC VEHICLES 2019
All This Torque And Still Stuck In Neutral

Allen Bukoff, PhD, & Pei Wang – AutoThink Research
Peter M. DeLorenzo & Janice J. Putman – Autoextremist.com

July 10, 2019
AutoThink Research
Bloomfield Hills, Michigan
===============================================

Well, this report no doubt explains WHY Detroit has yet made a vehicle that comes anywhere near the 2012 Model S - why they are at least 7 years behind - perhaps more like a decade?
Will GM/Chevy even make/sell 20,000 Bolts this year? Are e-trons really sitting on Audi lots?