Cleantech researcher Pike Research’s latest EV consumer survey, Consumer Attitudes, Opinions, Preferences, and Price Sensitivity for Plug-in Electric Vehicles and EV Charging Stations, indicates that between 2011 and 2012, the percentage of consumers participating in the firm’s annual survey that identified themselves as “extremely interested” or “very interested” in PEVs fell from 40% of the respondents to 36%.
Pike concludes, “While this decrease is not staggering, it does indicate that auto manufacturers will need to make improvements in PEVs in order to attract buyers in larger numbers. It also indicates that manufacturers need to do a better job of educating consumers about the benefits of PEVs and making these cars more relevant to the end user.”
The Pike Research report is based on an online survey of 1,001 US consumers assessing consumer demand, preferences, opinions, and price sensitivity for EVs and charging infrastructure. The survey was conducted in autumn 2012. Pike Research conducted similar surveys in 2010 and 2011, and the latest version shows, when appropriate, year-over-year comparisons of data to identify trends.
Pike forecasts that US EV sales will reach 47,966 units in 2012, then show a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 30% between 2012 and 2020.
If consumer interest in pure EVs has fallen below some expectations, the popularity of less carbon-intensive vehicles as a whole has increased during 2012. On 31 October automotive industry analyst Alan Baum and Luke Tonachel, a senior vehicles analyst from the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), are to conduct a telephone news conference outlining data showing how increased federal fuel efficiency standards, government support for green car technologies, shifting consumer buying habits, and major industry advances are “further transforming the US auto landscape.”
Every major record for US auto fuel efficiency, hybrid auto sales, and plug-in electric car sales has been broken by model year 2012, they will say, describing 2012 as the ‘Year of the Green Car’.
