One thing I teach new electric vehicle salespeople, is they should never lead their sales pitch with the environmental benefits of EVs. In fact, I tell them to avoid the subject entirely, unless the potential buyer brings it up.
This advice usually surprises them.
Unfortunately, protecting the environment has become extraordinarily political. Back in the 1980s and 1990s, the argument for and against environmental regulation hinged on balancing environmental protection against corporate interests (and jobs). If you’re old enough, you may remember the battle over the spotted owl. The logging industry had warned that protecting the spotted owl’s habitat would drive up the price of wood and therefore housing and would cut employment in the industry. Even the Forest Service had to agree with the assessment. It’s the basic economics of supply and demand, right?
Well, yes and no (click on the link for the explanation).
In either case, industry (and politicians) discovered that tying environmental concerns and regulations to job losses, especially in times of recession or job insecurity, was a very powerful tool to delay, or remove regulations which were designed to protect the environment and restrict the ability of industry to operate unhindered. This behavior continues today and can be seen when incumbent energy businesses (and the politicians they support) spread misinformation regarding new, competing sources of energy. As a resident of Texas, I watched our elected representatives blame wind and solar energy for the grid failures that paralyzed our state for a week, during unbelievably cold weather (for Texas, at least). They appeared on Fox News and wrote op-ed pieces in other media, to spread the lie. In the recent election, conservative candidates warned that the “Green New Deal” would cause huge job losses for Texans, in the oil and gas industry. Of course, they failed to mention that renewable energy has become a major source of job growth, in the U.S. and specifically Texas. In fact, Texas produces more electricity from wind energy than any other state, twice as much as the nearest competitor, California. If they’d spend as much time promoting job training for people to enter the renewable energy field, they’d actually be providing a valuable service to their constituents, rather than setting up an economic disaster that’s right over the horizon…
But I digress, back to teaching new EV salespeople…
I explain to them that the subject of global climate change has become so politically polarized that bringing up the subject will cost them about half of their prospective sales. Some of these prospects have been coached, by media and industry, to argue against the existence of climate change and are eager to do so, even when they are interested or curious about electric vehicles. My advice to the salespeople is to focus on the undeniable positives of the EV lifestyle, which include lower maintenance cost, faster acceleration and cornering, silent motors, convenience of “filling up” at home and much greater mileage, per dollar spent on “fuel.” Just like the negative strategy of employing fear of income loss, to hinder environmental activism, I advocate using the positive economic impact of EVs on the customers’ pocketbooks to pique their interest. Then, of course, there’s the test drive, which clenches the deal.
Here’s where the Trojan Horse comes in (finally!):
Whenever I’ve tried to get environmental groups to help promote EV adoption or EV-related events, I get the feeling that, although they agree that EVs are great for the environment, they feel it isn’t their primary focus. It makes cooperation more difficult to achieve. What they fail to understand is that electric vehicles are like the Trojan Horse. However, what’s being smuggled in, is increased environmental awareness.
My wife and I always considered ourselves to be environmentally aware and active. But we still lived in a much larger house than we needed, after our kids grew up. We had a swimming pool, which is nice in Texas’ summers, but we hardly used it. Of course, we still had to expend energy and money to run the pumps and chemically treat the water. We hired a landscaping crew to perform lawn upkeep and once a week, we’d have a swarm of guys mowing, edging and trimming with gasoline-powered equipment for thirty minutes.
Getting our first plug-in vehicle changed us and I’ve written about this again and again and again.
Now, I want the various environmental groups to understand this. Whether their mission is clean air, reducing plastics, clean water, preventing extinctions, etc. there’s one truth. It’s difficult to get new people involved in the mission. If it was easy, there would be no need for their organization to exist. Every day, we see TV commercials that say for just $19 a month, we can help children survive deadly diseases, we can feed starving children, we can eliminate poverty, we can help cure diseases or prevent animal cruelty. Frankly, in a time where most people are living paycheck-to-paycheck, we are crisis fatigued. Of course, we all want to stop all these bad things from happening. We want to help. But money is tight and where should we start?
If these organization will help move EV adoption forward by posting about them on their social media, publicizing EV-related events, setting up a booth at those events, invite EV advocates to speak at their meetings, etc., they’ll get new members. Better yet, these new members may have never joined their organization, via the traditional route. Once a person gets a plug-in vehicle, they all seem to have the same reaction. They become promoters of EVs. They start telling all their friends and coworkers about how great their EV is. Some of their misinformed friends tell them they’ve made a mistake and that EVs aren’t a good value. The batteries don’t last and are expensive to replace. They have moved their exhaust from the tailpipe to the coal-fired power plant’s smokestack. The pollution generated by making an EV cancels out any ecological benefit of zero emission driving. This introduces doubt into the EV buyer’s mind to causes them to do a little research, on Facebook owner’s groups and EV-related websites, to get the facts (and to save face). Realizing they and their friends have been deceived, makes them angry and increases their desire to understand environmental issues. In other words, it changes them and it changes their desires and goals. In other words the Trojan Horse of the electric vehicle has disgorged its cargo of environmentalism and the old fortress of their previous understanding is conquered.
This is exactly what happened to me and my wife (and our daughter). Many people, after buying an EV from me and driving it for a while, would call me to tell me they’d “never go back to a gas car.”
That’s just the first stage, of their environmental awakening. The next stage is comprised of the deliberate actions they take, based on their new consciousness.
Now, what can they do with some of the money they used to spend on gasoline?
