EV adoption

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EV buyers want SUVs and sedans, not minivans or trucks, survey says

Cars, EV adoption / /

people really hate minivans —

There’s also a wide spread when it comes to acceptable range, Edmunds found.

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Car dealer is giving key for a new car to a woman

Enlarge / Edmunds surveyed 300 car buyers who were considering a new EV in January 2024.

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There is a significant mismatch between the people who want to buy electric vehicles and the people who want to sell them. That’s according to data from a new survey by Edmunds, which polled people shopping for new cars in January. These prospective buyers want affordable sedans and SUVs, segments of the market that are being ignored by automakers. Instead, they’re being offered expensive EVs, including plenty of trucks, for which there is little demand.

Almost half (47 percent) of the 300 people surveyed said they want to spend less than $40,000 on a new EV. And just over 1 in 5 (22 percent) said that they don’t want to pay more than $30,000. But currently, no new EV is on sale below this price, and only a handful of EVs (Mini Cooper SE, Fiat 500e, Hyundai Kona Electric, Nissan Leaf, and Tesla Model 3) are on sale for less than $40,000.

According to Edmunds’ data, the average transaction price of a new EV was $61,702 in 2023, compared to $47,450 for other vehicles.

When it comes to body styles, and despite what you might read in the comments to automotive articles at Ars, SUVs are as popular as sedans with potential buyers; 43 percent said they want a sedan (or wagon), and 42 percent want an SUV. Edmunds’ data does not make a minivan boom seem any more likely—appeal for minivans was minuscule, at just 5 percent.

Things don’t look great for the electric pickup truck, either. The Detroit-based automakers have had high hopes for the electrified versions of their biggest cash cows, but Ford’s F-150 Lightning (the first to reach market) has sat on lots as dealers stocked up on fully loaded models that are often double the price of the $40,000 model that Ford spent so much time telling us about.

Just 10 percent of Edmunds’ survey respondents said they were shopping for an electric pickup. Ironically, this probably spells good news for the automakers, Edmunds says—truck buyers will keep buying gasoline- and diesel-powered pickups, which contribute greatly to automaker profits.

The survey shows that car buyers looking for EVs are, on the whole, not well-informed. Twelve percent said they trust Toyota best when it comes to EVs, despite the fact that the Japanese automaker is years behind its rivals and has but a single, somewhat mediocre EV on sale today in 2024. Another 8 percent named Honda, which similarly is lagging the industry in terms of electrification.

Tesla scored top (23 percent), followed by BMW (13 percent)—both companies with extensive experience in electrifying automobiles. Ford and Chevrolet shared fifth place (7 percent), but neither Kia nor Hyundai were namechecked, despite offering a range of EVs, most of which are best in class.

Edmunds also found a pretty wide spread when it asked car buyers how much range they needed. Just fewer than 1 in 4 (24 percent) said they’d be happy with 99 miles (160 km) or less. Another 22 percent said between 100–199 miles (160–320 km) was fine, with 17 percent indicating that 200–299 miles (320–481 km) was the sweet spot. Most EVs on sale today fall into this range bracket.

But a significant number of potential EV buyers indicated a desire for much more range. Nineteen percent wanted 300–399 miles (482–642 km)—the Hyundai Ioniq 6, Tesla Model 3, Mercedes-Benz EQS, BMW i4 and i7, and the Polestar 2 all fit this bill.

Another 8 percent wanted 400–499 miles (642–804 km) of range in their new EV, which limits them to the Tesla Model S, which has a claimed range of 405 miles (651 km). The 5 percent of survey recipients who claimed a desired range of 500–599 miles (805-964 km) at least have the Lucid Air as an option; no EV exists that can satisfy the 4 percent who demand more than 600 miles (964 km) of range.

EV buyers want SUVs and sedans, not minivans or trucks, survey says Read More »

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EV bargains to be found as Hertz sells off some of its electric cars

Cars, cheap EV, Chevrolet Bolt EUV, EV adoption, Hertz, Kia EV6, Subaru Solterra, tesla model 3, used ev prices, used EV tax credit / /

tell me where it hertz —

More than 1,200 EVs are cheap enough to qualify for the used clean vehicle tax credit.

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A Silver Chevrolet Bolt EUV next to a beach house

Enlarge / Hertz currently has more than a thousand Bolt EUVs for sale as they leave its rental car fleet.

Chevrolet

Electric vehicles have many advantages over cars that still use internal combustion engines. They’re far more efficient, they’re quieter, and they usually have much more torque than their gasoline-powered equivalents. But we’re still far from achieving price parity between powertrains. In other words, EVs are expensive.

One place you can find some bargains, though, is the rental company Hertz, which currently has more than 2,100 EVs for sale, more than half of which are affordable enough to qualify for the IRS used clean vehicle tax credit.

Hertz has been adding a lot of EVs to its fleet as part of the company’s decarbonization plan. In 2021, it revealed plans to purchase 100,000 Teslas. However, the controversial car maker had delivered fewer than half of those two years later, and long repair times for customer-inflicted damage have seen the rental agency divest itself of many of those Teslas and diversify its fleet, adding plenty of Polestars, Kias, and Chevrolets.

This January, we learned that Hertz plans to sell off about 20,000 of its EVs, and there are currently 2,115 EVs up for grabs among the 31,134 cars for sale on its used car sales site.

There are 761 Teslas for sale, 63 of which are Models 3 priced at less than $25,000—the price cap for the IRS used clean vehicle tax credit. Some of them have been around the block a few times, with more than 90,000 miles on the odometer (145,000 km), but there are others with less than 50,000 miles (80,500 km) on them.

Better bargains are available if you want a Chevy Bolt—Hertz currently has 1,178 Bolt EUVs (and another eight Bolt EVs) for sale. All of these are cheap enough to qualify for the used clean vehicle tax credit, and plenty of them are low-mileage examples with less than 10,000 miles (16,000 km) on the clock.

There are a handful of other makes and models of EVs also available. You could pick from one of 126 Subaru Solterras, for example, which range from $27,027 to $33,002. And there are 42 Kia EV6s, ranging from $27,120 to $39,901. These are too expensive for the used clean vehicle tax credit, though.

Not everyone reading this will feel entirely comfortable buying an ex-rental car, given the hard lives that such vehicles often lead. But if you’re feeling brave, there are some big savings to be had versus buying new. Anecdotally, the only thing that went wrong with the ex-rental Ford Ka I used to own was a worn-out clutch—not a problem an EV will suffer from.

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Car dealers step up opposition to White House fuel efficiency targets

CAFE standards, car dealerships, Cars, EV adoption / /
A row of empty EV charging spaces

Richard Newstead/Getty Images

Electric vehicle sales had a pretty good 2023 in North America, with more than 1.1 million battery EVs and just under 300,000 plug-in hybrid EVs finding new homes. That’s a 50 percent increase on 2022, yet the last few months have seen the trade and business presses report a string of negative stories about EV adoption. And it’s not just news stories—major automakers are scaling back their EV ambitions, and together with auto dealerships, they’re lobbying the White House to water down its plan to reduce transportation-related carbon emissions.

While US car buyers are still choosing EVs in greater numbers, the rate of increase is beginning to slow. According to a report from S&P Global, EV registrations grew by 23 percent in December, faster than the general increase in new light vehicle sales (15 percent year over year). But market leaders did not do so well. Tesla only grew sales by 11 percent; at Ford, they rose by 13 percent. Chevrolet saw EV sales drop by 26 percent as it finally exhausted its supply of the low-cost Bolt EV.

Car buyers’ concerns

Similarly, a survey from Deloitte provides a little more pessimism when it comes to EV adoption. It has found that only 6 percent of buyers are now considering a battery EV, down from 7 percent in 2023. Demand for plug-in hybrids has also fallen, from 7 percent in 2023 to 5 percent in 2024. Instead, more buyers want gasoline- or diesel-powered vehicles, a full two-thirds in 2024 compared to 58 percent last year.

The high cost of new plug-in vehicles doesn’t help, despite government subsidies in the form of a tax credit. Deloitte’s data shows that among people intending to buy an EV, 74 percent of them want to pay $50,000 or less.

“Despite availability of government incentives, the rise in interest rates is adding stress to people’s wallets,” said Masa Hasegawa, Deloitte’s principal for the US automotive sector. “In addition to affordability, our study shows that there are several key apprehensions consumers still have about purchasing and owning BEVs, such as the consistency and reliability of charging experience and range anxiety. This will evolve over time, but they remain at the top of mind for many consumers today.”

Misinformation abounds

Some of those apprehensions are well-founded; 40 percent cite a lack of home charging, for instance, and half are concerned about the time it takes to recharge an EV. Range anxiety continues to be a problem, too; 49 percent worried about driving range, one in three worried about cold-weather performance, and 28 percent were concerned about trips requiring more advanced planning than they were used to.

However, some other concerns suggest a real lack of knowledge among the general public regarding some aspects of EVs. Sixty-nine percent of people intending to buy an EV were somewhat or very concerned about the end-to-end environmental impact of an EV—higher than the 56 percent of people who intend their next car to have an internal combustion engine.

While it is correct that an EV requires more energy to build, an electric powertrain is so much more efficient than even the best hybrid powertrains that it only requires a few years of driving for the EV to come out ahead.

There are some unrealistic expectations out there, too. Forty-six percent of Deloitte’s survey respondents said they would need an EV with at least 400 miles of range before they’d consider purchasing one, a proportion that grew to 60 percent when just taking into account those living in suburban and rural areas. While battery energy density and EV powertrain efficiency both continue to improve, currently only Lucid sells an EV with more than 500 miles of range, while Tesla claims its Model S has a 405-mile range (something Tesla owners might dispute.)

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