Why people are buying EVs in the U.S and why they're not: 2 new studies offer clues

Two studies released Thursday offer clues as to why people are — and are not — purchasing electric vehicles in 2022.

The J.D. Power study surveyed 10,030 automotive consumers from February to April and found that 24 percent said they were "very likely" to purchase an EV, up 4 percentage points from last year.

J.D. Power attributed the increase in consumer interest to the introduction of new EV models, such as pickups.

The Autolist study, which surveyed 1,355 automotive consumers from April to May, found pickups rose to the second-most popular style of EV in 2022, compared with being the fourth most popular style in 2019.

Autolist's annual Electric Vehicle Survey, however, found consumer sentiment regarding all EVs was largely unchanged from when it conducted the study in 2019. According to this year's study, the top concerns regarding EVs were price, range on a single charge and lack of charging infrastructure to support them.

These were the same concerns consumers noted in 2019, but the study found price is a bigger issue now.

"Despite all the gains that the industry has made and technology has made and despite the sort of inevitability of electric vehicles in the long run, our study has shown for consumers, [EVs] still hasn't clicked for them, it's still not something they see as a viable alternative yet," Autolist Editor David Undercoffler told Automotive News.

Undercoffler, a former Automotive News staff reporter, cited the price of EVs as the main reason for the lack of adoption.

J.D. Power's U.S. Electric Vehicle Consideration Study showed home ownership played a significant role in the likelihood of purchasing an EV. The study showed that 27 percent of consumers who own their own home were "very likely to consider" purchasing an EV compared with 17 percent of those who rent. The study also showed that 37 percent of premium-vehicle owners were "very likely" to consider an EV compared with 21 percent of mass-market vehicle owners.

"There certainly is a correlation there between household income and EV purchase consideration and to that end, we do see a higher level of overall consideration among shoppers who are currently driving premium-segment vehicles," Stewart Stropp, J.D. Power senior automotive retail director, said in an interview. "Having said that, we are seeing a notable increase in EV consideration among people who are driving mass-market vehicles as well. It went up 6 percentage points year over year."

J.D. Power said its study found "the more vehicle owners drive, the more they are likely to consider an EV," and that this could be an indication that increasing fuel prices could increase demand for EVs.

But the Autolist study shows 21 percent of consumers said that the price of gasoline wasn't a consideration in choosing an EV and just 12 percent said they'd go electric if the price of gasoline reached $6 per gallon.

Undercoffler said he doesn't think there is much of a correlation between fuel price and willingness to purchase an EV. That's because the Autolist study was conducted during a period when gasoline prices were steadily increasing.

"I'm inclined to think there isn't much of a correlation. Consumers are frustrated by high gas prices, but they don't sit there and pump gas into their vehicle thinking, 'I'm paying $6 right now, the next thing I'm gonna do is buy an electric vehicle'," Undercoffler said. "It goes back to the price, the range … these are such key concerns of theirs that those together far outweigh frustrations over the price of a gallon of gas."

J.D. Power said 30 percent of people who said they would not purchase an EV said it was because of "a lack of information" about EVs and that "firsthand experience with EVs plays an important role in purchase consideration." Stropp said concerns over where to charge and differences among EVs and gasoline-powered vehicles contributed to this lack of knowledge.

"The retail teams and people who work in dealerships that are selling these vehicles really have to train the team to be able to sell not just the product, but the whole support structure and ecosystem around the product," Stropp said.