Who buys electric vehicles in the US? How Americans view battery-charged cars

Had it not been for Ford’s Model T and cheap fossil fuels, electric cars could have been the norm for the past 100-plus years. It’s hard to imagine nowadays, but electric cars at the turn of the 20th century outsold all other types of cars. They proceeded the gasoline-powered engine by over half a century.

However, while they were, and are, quieter, less polluting and require less maintenance, at that time they didn’t require as much technical skill to fix, they fell out of favor with the public. It wasn’t the cars themselves, per say, but pure economics and necessity.

Ford developed the assembly line, driving down the cost of manufacturing, and the discovery of crude oil in Texas helped bring “the electric car buzz to a reverberating halt,” as Miriam Fauzia puts in in US Today. Furthermore, the United States was a much less urbanized society back then. And finding a way to charge an electric car was not that easy. Sound familiar.

Anyway, it wasn’t an immediate downfall, but the electric car concept would take a century to regain a foothold.

Electric car purchases by the autumn of 2023 had passed the crucial tipping point in at least 23 countries, the point where general acceptance and mass adoption happens, somewhere between 5 and 10 percent of new car sales. The US is within that range as well according to Edmunds with the share of new vehicle sales in February 2024 for the EV market reaching approximately 6.5 percent.

But that is only a fraction of the US car market. What do the rest of Americans think about electric vehicles?

Who buys electric vehicles in the US? How Americans view battery-charged cars

According to a Pew Research Center survey, “Half of US adults say they are not too or not at all likely to consider purchasing an EV.” And while interest in EVs spiked in the wake of the pandemic when gas prices went through the roof, thanks to disruptions caused by the pathogen, public interest was down around four percent at the time of the survey from the year before.

As was the case a century ago, being able to charge an electric vehicle is one of the major obstacles to adaptation of the technology in the minds of many. Over half of respondents expressed concerns about the nation’s charging infrastructure being able to support a large number of electric vehicles on the roads.

Polling found that around 70 percent of Republicans would not consider buying an electric car compared to less than a third of Democrats. That said, while it is considered a partisan issue, the percentage of electric vehicle sales in what are considered “red states” and “blue states” by party affiliation show a more nuanced picture.

For example, the percentage of Republicans who are registered EV owners exceeds the percentage that actually voted for the GOP presidential candidate in 2020. Of the states that Trump won in 2020, Kentucky is the only one where more Democrats than Republicans own electric vehicles.

It appears that actually electric vehicle adoption is unrelated to political leanings according to research by the Environmental Defense Fund Action. Nor does the idea of the availability of “charging centers sell cars unless EVs are already on the mind of the consumer,” Brett Williams, a senior principal advisor for EV programs at the Center for Sustainable Energy told CNN.

Of those who would consider purchasing an electric vehicle nearly three quarters want to do so to help the environment and 70 percent to save money on gas. As well, where there is a mix of factors like consumer awareness, infrastructure, incentives and availability, there is more consumer interest in owning an EV.

Such is the case with California, which accounts for over a third of registered electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. But while that state may be left-leaning, according to David Kieve, president of EDF Action: “The more people get behind the wheel of an electric vehicle the happier they are.”