Claims that electric vehicles don’t have enough demand may be overblown.

A new study from GBK Collective, published Thursday, found that half of the more than 2,000 US car consumers they interviewed were considering either an electric or a hybrid car for their next vehicle purchase.

This far outweighs the current ownership trends found in the study. Only 14% of those surveyed already own a plug-in or hybrid vehicle of some kind. It’s another piece of evidence of a huge opportunity for EV manufacturers to home in on the needs of these green car-curious consumers.

“These are not the same kind of customers who created the initial EV market,” GBK President Jeremy Korst told Business Insider in an interview.

“These are later adopters, and because of that, they’re not as driven by innovation or even design,” Korst said. “They have more functional needs, and they’re much more pragmatic and thinking about the total cost of ownership both in price and in effort, like, ‘how do I charge so what’s that going to take? How much time is it going to take me?’”

  • JohnDClay
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    10 months ago

    I don’t see how PHEVs will come down in cost of ownership at all, the fuel is extremely expensive and the cars aren’t cheap either. I don’t see it making sense at all.

    • LemmyIsFantastic@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Batteries are expensive. And they ain’t getting cheaper. Manufacturing is already difficult with supply chain challenges. And we’re not even close to having everyone replace ICE.

      Unless the new sodium batteries take off they are never going get to that point where BEV beats ICE everyone has been taking about four a few years.

      By having a PHEV you reduce the dependence on rare earth materials while still giving everyone enough range to get around day to day. Go on a long trip? Range issues gone. The only real challenge is the upfront cost as well, but that doesn’t scale nearly as poorly. Prices will not rise as much if we push for greater market saturation of the PHEV category. The dependence on rare materials goes away making it easier for everyone to get one. A minor increase in maintenance is a small price for a vehicle that does everything they need better.

      • JohnDClay
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        10 months ago

        Where are you getting ‘they aren’t getting cheaper’ from?

        Battery price over time

        Hydrogen seems to be going in the wrong direction.

        Hydrogen cost per mile

        And there aren’t exactly a ton of fueling stations either.

        Stations over time

        And that’s compared to about 90k electric chargers in California.

        • IMongoose@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          Are you confusing PHEVs (Plug in Hybrid Electric Vehicles) with whatever hydrogen cars are called?

          • JohnDClay
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            10 months ago

            Oh I think I am. I thought they said fuel cell electric vehicles instead of plug in hybrid. Toyota also bet big on hydrogen, so my brain jumped to that that’s what the comment must be referring to. Thanks for pointing that out!

        • LemmyIsFantastic@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          See those flat lines towards the end? I’ll bet $1000 to charity that in 5 years is going the direction. We’ve hit a point where supply is not likely going to meet demand at all.

          • JohnDClay
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            10 months ago

            You have a way to remind you in 5 years? If so, I’ll take you up on it. If we’re taking inflation adjusted, idk what inflation is gonna do coming up.