Most Texans unwilling to buy an electric vehicle, says UH-TSU study
Nearly 60% Texans won't buy EV, study says
A group of thousands of car dealers asked the White house this week to tap the brakes on an aggressive federal push toward putting more electric vehicles on the road. It comes as FOX 26 Business Reporter Tom Zizka says a new study suggests most Texans aren't even interested in an EV.
HOUSTON - A group of thousands of car dealers have asked the White House to tap the brakes on an aggressive federal push toward putting more electric vehicles on the road. Those federal regulations set emission standards that are difficult to meet, leaving EVs as the only alternative. It comes as the University of Houston and Texas Southern University researchers find Texans are not very enthusiastic about the choice.
Even as Tesla unveiled its long-awaited, ready-to-deliver, Cybertruck in Austin, it may not make much of a dent in the marketplace. The UH-TSU study finds 59.5% of potential buyers unwilling to consider an EV.
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The technology is hampered by perceptions that: They're expensive to buy, they don't go far enough on a charge, and finding a place to charge them is difficult.
UH Hobby School of Public Policy researcher Dr. Savannah Sipole says, "With big urban cities, such as Houston, we have a lot of people who do live in an apartment, live in a condominium, where they're not able to charge at home, and that seems to be one of the bigger attributes of why people aren't moving toward EV's."
Kevin Douglass is an EV advocate with the Houston Electric Auto Association, who says change is an evolution for would-be drivers, "The perception of the conversation has been that they're being told what to do."
When we first met Douglass in 2018, about 1% of Texas vehicles were EV's, compared to just over 5%, today, according to the new study. Douglass calls that progress that could gain acceptance as more EV's get parked in people's driveways and friends and family get a look. "They're able to ride in one, they're able to have a conversation with someone they trust, and so that changes the dynamic in decision-making," he says.
For researchers, knowledge is power in knowing what consumers want and adjusting expectations of what the future might hold. "We know what the consumers' concerns are, and we know the areas that can be fixed in order to get more people on board," says Sipole.
Despite federal incentives to buy an EV, automakers say they're not selling as fast as they are being built. Additionally, the nation's electric grid is still not ready to support widespread demand for people plugging in their cars, and Consumer Reports' annual Car Reliability Survey finds EVs still have far more problems than conventional gas-powered vehicles.
The evolution still has a way to travel.