Ignorance of how EVs work is holding back uptake, says survey
A new survey conducted by YouGov has showed that belief in EV myths is holding back adoption, with most petrol car drivers scoring just a 2/10 in a quiz about how electric cars work.
The survey was commissioned by the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU), an independent nonprofit in the UK.
Conducted by YouGov, it asked 1,000 UK petrol/diesel car drivers ten questions about electric cars, mainly focused on popular pieces of misinformation that has been pushed by the oil industry and other entities that oppose cleaner, better vehicles.
The survey found that this misinformation is alive and well – and particularly alive and well among drivers who haven’t driven an EV.
Out of the petrol drivers surveyed, a majority of them, 57%, were only able to answer 2 out of 10 questions correctly, and 90% got less than half correct. There were a lot of “unsure” answers, so this doesn’t mean they got 8 wrong, but that’s still a pretty high failure rate. 23% of petrol drivers got zero questions right.
While we don’t have access to all the data and questions, here are some of the questions that ECIU highlighted:
- Nearly two-thirds (62%) of petrol drivers believe it’s more expensive to own and run an EV, with only 14% correctly recognising that EVs are typically cheaper. A report from ECIU found that the drivers of the top 10 selling petrol cars of 2023 can find themselves paying a petrol premium of £700 a year in running costs, compared to an equivalent electric car.
- 41% of petrol drivers incorrectly think that EVs are more likely to catch fire than petrol cars, with only 24% correct in their understanding that they are less likely to catch fire. Evidence from EV Fire Safe indicated that EVs are more than 80 times less likely to catch fire than petrol or diesel cars.
- More than half (59%) of petrol drivers thought the UK’s electricity grid “will not be able to cope” with the UK’s shift to EVs, whereas only one in five (20%) correctly identified this statement as false. The National Grid has explicitly labelled this a ‘myth’ and is clear that the power system will be able to cope with millions more EVs in the UK.
- 80% of petrol drivers think the UK is not on course to install the charging infrastructure it needs, despite the country being ahead of schedule to hit its target of 300,000 chargers on the UK’s roads by 2030.
- More drivers (35%) incorrectly believed that an EV’s lifetime CO2 emissions are no less than those of a petrol car than correctly identified this statement as false (32%). An EV being driven in the UK produces three times less lifetime CO2 emissions that an equivalent petrol or diesel car.
Though there were a few questions that drivers answered right more than they answered wrong:
- 37% recognized that more EVs running on British renewable electricity would make the UK more energy independent than relying on increasing imports of oil and petrol. 29% agreed with the incorrect statement that EVs would weaken the UK’s energy independence.
- 54% correctly disagreed with the statement that EVs are not better for urban air quality than petrol cars. Only 28% believed this statement to be true.
- More petrol drivers (39%) correctly disagreed with the statement that EVs pose a threat to the structural integrity of the UK’s car parks than incorrectly agreed with it (33%).
More EV knowledge = greater purchase intent
But the point here is not that non-EV drivers are ignorant. It’s to show how these falsehoods are affecting EV uptake, which in turn means worse air quality and worse effects of climate change for everyone on Earth.
Of the drivers who scored the highest – 8/10 or more correct answers – 64.6% of them said they want their next car to be an EV. But of the drivers who scored 2/10 or less, only 6.1% wanted their next car to be an EV. So those with the most accurate information were 11 times more likely to want an EV than those who had fallen victim to misinformation.
This shows that widespread misinformation is affecting people’s purchasing decisions, and keeping them from buying a vehicle that can not only save them money on fuel and maintenance costs, but also save all of society from the health costs of pollution.
Electrek’s Take
While this survey was conducted in the UK, we’ve seen similar surveys before over the years, showing that EV misinformation has quite a significant hold on the populace in various countries.
Unfortunately, the misinformation mentioned here is quite persistent because it is constantly being repeated by powerful entities which don’t want the status quo to change.
Even though it’s clear we need to change how transportation works because of the massive amount of pollution it causes, leading to poor health and climate change, polluting industry would rather things keep going the same way they always have. So members of the richest and most powerful industries in the world, oil and automotive, are perfectly happy to push all sorts of misinformation in order to oppose a change that is coming no matter what they do.
That’s why sites like ourselves exist – to try to demystify electric cars for people who are interested, to counter this misinformation, and to hopefully bring more people into that “high-scoring” category, so that we can all gain the individual and societal benefits that EV ownership can result in.
So if you are one of these petrol car drivers – stick around, read some articles, ask questions in the comments, head to EV-specific forums on the internet, head to EV events like National Drive Electric Week, or just reach out to some EV owning friends of yours and ask them what the experience is like.
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National Grid Renewables has broken ground on its 100 MW Apple River Solar Project in Polk County, Wisconsin.
The Wisconsin solar farm, which will use US-made First Solar Series 6 Plus bifacial modules, will be constructed by The Boldt Company, creating 150 construction and service jobs. Apple River Solar will generate over $36 million in direct economic benefits over its first 20 years.
Once it comes online in late 2025, Apple River Solar will supply clean energy to Xcel Energy, which serves customers throughout the Upper Midwest. According to National Grid Renewables, the solar farm will generate enough energy to power around 26,000 homes annually. It will also offset about 129,900 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions each year – equivalent to taking 30,900 cars off the road.
“We are excited to see this project begin as it underscores our dedication to delivering clean, reliable and affordable energy to our customers,” said Karl Hoesly, President, Xcel Energy-Wisconsin and Michigan. “This project is an important step in those goals while bringing significant economic benefits to Polk County and the local townships.”
Electrek reported in February that Xcel Energy, Minnesota’s largest utility, expects to cut more than 80% – and possibly up to 88% – of its emissions by 2030, putting it on track to hit Minnesota’s goal of net zero by 2040. It also says it’s on track to achieve its clean energy goals for all the Upper Midwest states it serves – Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Michigan.
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Tesla has announced that it will finally deliver 500 kW charging as it is about to install its long-awaited V4 Supercharger cabinets.
The rollout of Supercharger V4 has been a strange one, to say the least.
Tesla has been deploying the new charging stations for two years and calling them “Supercharger V4”, but it has only been deploying the charging stalls.
Supercharger stations are made of two main parts: the stalls, which are where the charging cable is located, and the cabinets, which are generally located further back and include all the power electronics.
For all these new “Supercharger V4”, Tesla was actually using Supercharger V3 cabinets. This has been limiting the power output of the charging stations to 250 kW – although
Today, Tesla officially announced its “V4 Cabinet”, which the automaker claims will enable of “delivering up to 500kW for cars and 1.2MW for Semi.”
Here are the main features of the V4 Cabinet as per Tesla:
- Faster charging: Supports 400V-1000V vehicle architectures, including 30% faster charging for Cybertruck. S3XY vehicles enjoy 250kW charge rates they already experience on V3 Cabinet — charging up to 200 miles in 15 minutes.
- Faster deployments: V4 Cabinet powers 8 posts, 2X the stalls per cabinet. Lower footprint and complexity = more sites coming online faster.
- Next-generation hardware: Cutting-edge power electronics designed to be the most reliable on the planet, with 3X power density enabling higher throughput with lower costs.
Tesla reports that its first sites with the new V4 Cabinets are going into permitting now. The company expects its first sites to open next year.
We recently reported about Tesla’s new Oasis Supercharger project, which includes larger solar arrays and battery packs to operate the charging station mostly off-grid.
Early in the deployment of the Supercharger network, Tesla promised to add solar arrays and batteries to all Supercharger stations, and Musk even said that most stations would be able to operate off-grid.
While Tesla did add solar and batteries to a few stations, the vast majority of them don’t have their own power system or have only minimal solar canopies.
Back in 2016, I asked Musk about this, and he said that it would now happen as Tesla had the “pieces now in place” with Supercharger V3, Powerpack V2, and SolarCity:
It took about 8 years, but it sounds like the pieces are now getting actually in place with Supercharger V4, Megapacks, and this new Oasis project.
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Hyundai has a new secret weapon it’s about ready to unleash. To revamp the brand in China and counter BYD’s surge, Hyundai is launching a new AI-powered EV next year. The new model will be Hyundai’s first dedicated electric car for the world’s largest EV market.
With the help of Haomo, a Chinese autonomous startup, Hyundai will launch its first EV equipped with generative AI. It will also be its first model designed specifically for China.
A Hyundai Motor official said (via The Korea Herald) the company is “working to load the software” onto the new EV model, “which will be released in the Chinese market next year.” The spokesperson added, “The level of autonomous driving is somewhere between 2 and 2.5.”
In comparison, Tesla’s Autopilot is considered a level 2 advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) on the SAE scale (0 to 5), meaning it offers limited hands-free features.
With Autopilot, you still have to keep your eyes on the road and hands on the steering wheel, or the system will notify you and eventually disengage.
Haomo’s system, DriveGPT, unveiled last spring, takes inspiration from the OpenAI’s popular ChatGPT.
The system can continuously update in real-time to optimize decision-making by absorbing traffic data patterns. According to Haomo, DriveGPT is used in around 20 models as it looks to play a bigger role in China.
Hyundai hopes new AI-powered EV boosts sales in China
Electric vehicle sales continue surging in China. According to Rho Motion, China set another EV sales record last month with 1.2 million units sold, up 50% from October 2023.
Over 8.4 million EVs were sold in China in the first ten months of 2024, a notable 38% increase from last year.
BYD continues to dominate its home market. According to Autovista24, BYD accounted for 32.9% of all PHEV and EV (NEV) sales in China through September, with over half of the top 20 best-selling EV models.
Tesla was second with a 6.5% share of the market, but keep in mind these numbers only include plug-in models (PHEV).
Like most foreign automakers, Hyundai is struggling to keep up with the influx of low-cost electric models in China. Beijing Hyundai’s sales have been slipping since 2017. Through September, Korean automaker’s share of the Chinese market fell to just 1.2%.
Last month, Hyundai opened its first overseas digital R&D center in China to help kick off its return to the region.
According to local reports, Hyundai is partnering with other local tech companies like Thundersoft, a smart cockpit provider, and others in China to power up its next-gen EVs
With its first AI-powered EV launching next year, Hyundai hopes to turn things around in the region quickly. The new model will be one of five to launch in China through 2026.
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