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?’”

  • @[email protected]
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    10 months ago

    I’ll happily drive an ev if

    • it is affordable
    • it doesn’t require an online account and app to work correctly
    • it isn’t an enormous truck/SUV
    • it isn’t fucking hideous
    • I don’t have to support Elon Musk

    Too bad nobody’s making one of those.

    • @Lon3star
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      1110 months ago
      • replacing a faulty battery wont be nearly the price of an entirely new vehicle
      • Beefalo
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        410 months ago
        • If the charging infrastructure is as universal and as reliable as gas stations, so whenever the landlords want to make sure all the parking stalls have at least Level 1 charging

        • What about better public transport, I’m ready to stop putting money into an “asset” that depreciates at $300 per month, while the debt jacks up interest fuck me the depreciation on a car makes the interest look like a reasonable tip to your server

        • And yeah, twice, the batteries should be swappable, they can be semi-permanent but assume a 2-year replacement time with a standardized installation, fuck paying $45,000 for a really fast cellphone that stops working when the battery does and replacing the battery means ripping the glue apart and the car is never right again. They have to be AT LEAST as swappable as engines.

        • @buzz86us
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          110 months ago

          Well we have Nio and CATL ramping battery swap, but wouldn’t you know it… They are under tariffs… Oops

    • @cozycosmic
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      510 months ago

      Kia niro ev. You can get a 2019 model for ~25k, and it just looks like a normal hatchback.

      • @[email protected]
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        210 months ago

        I have the nitro ev. Can definitely recommend but it’s going to be annoying when every charger only supports NACS standard in a few years though

      • @Psythik
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        010 months ago

        Still too big and bulky. I want a roadster EV; something no bigger than a Miata or 350Z.

        Anything larger than a midsized car sucks in the handling department, and I hate that my country has such a hard on for them.

    • @Psythik
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      10 months ago

      All I want is a sporty convertable EV that looks attractive and has 350+ HP for under $30K.

      Oh and find some excuse to put a manual transmission on it – or at least flappy paddles – without it being a gimmick (edit: like CVTs with their fake manual mode; fuck that noise). Then I’m sold.

      • NιƙƙιDιɱҽʂ
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        10 months ago

        There’s no such thing as a manual transmission with an EV though…? The purpose of a transmission is to make best use of the power band of a combustion engine, an issue that EVs don’t suffer as they are able to provide maximum torque at zero RPM. At the end of the day, all you’re ever gonna get is some gimmicky fake manual mode.

        • @Psythik
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          110 months ago

          Fine I can do without shifting. (TBH I don’t miss it that much anyway in EVs since the instant torque makes up for it.) Just give me my pocket-sized roadster EV, please.

          • NιƙƙιDιɱҽʂ
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            10 months ago

            Fair enough! But yeah, definitely let me know when there’s an EV that meets your other criteria, I’ll be right there in line with you to get one, haha