This article completely drained my energy this morning. I was especially crushed by its statement that “Price, range and access to charging stations have remained as primary barriers to buying an EV.” How can these myths continue to be perpetuated?
I come across this all the time and it is exhausting. I was chatting with a contractor, bidding on some work at my home, when gasoline prices came up. I told him how economical EVs are, how fun they are, the cost savings, etc. He actually said, “I try to steer away from politics.”
“Politics?” I said. “EVs are not political, they’re just practical!”
Here’s the issue in a nutshell: “Price, range and access to charging stations have remained as primary barriers to buying an EV. ” That’s just a lack of understanding AND THE PEOPLE MOST RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS LACK OF UNDERSTANDING ARE THE ONES MOST LIKELY TO BENEFIT FROM THE TRANSITION TO ELECTRIC TRANSPORT!
Government: WHY is it that half of Americans don’t know about the $7,500 federal income tax credit? It’s because the federal government isn’t screaming about it from the rooftops! How many government-generated public service announcements have we seen in our lifetimes? Ever seen one for the tax credit? If climate change is really a crisis and that big a focus of the federal government, why don’t we see as many PSAs about this as we saw about the COVID-19 vaccine? Many states offer tax credits or rebates for the purchase or lease of a plug-in vehicle, but their citizens, and auto salespeople have no information about these programs for exactly the same reason.
EV manufacturers, especially traditional OEMs: Why haven’t all these manufacturers joined forces (and shared the financial cost) of educating the public? Exactly where do they think consumers will get the information they need? Osmosis, perhaps? The opportunity to sell MASSIVE numbers of new vehicles is right in front of them, but they flounder when it comes to explaining the benefits of electric driving. The traditional OEMs roll out dealership sales training that is so very limited in its impact that it’s almost futile. There are so many better ways to educate salespeople that would guarantee incredibly great retention of the information, but not a single OEM I am aware of is using any of the methodologies I’ve been preaching about. Traditional OEMs often would shift inventory to the CARB states, to get ZEV credits, allowing them to sell ICE vehicles in those states. They’d also produce EVs in low volumes (and with unattractive styling, to boot!). The result was sporadic inventory, in non-CARB states, which dissuaded salespeople from learning about or selling EVs. Why invest the time and effort if you can’t get the vehicles? If only they would realize how many people are about to dump their old gasoline-powered vehicles for EVs, generating tons of sales, that their ignoring this is almost malpractice. If you want to understand the magnitude of this, just tell a friend, “I just bought an EV!” 99% of the time, your friend will respond, “A Tesla?”
Auto dealers: After I got my first plug-in vehicle, I became such a vocal fan (and persistent pest at my local dealership) that they hired me as their first, and at that point only, “EV sales specialist.” I’d never sold a car in my life, never done commissioned sales, despised the auto sales process so much I’d avoid buying a new car until my current one had 100K miles on the odometer. Still, I was excited to give EV sales a try and had great success, averaging 35% of my sales being electric, IN TEXAS, for the six years I did so. It was so easy to sell EVs and PHEVs, even back in the olden times of 2014-2015. Did other salespeople follow my lead and start selling PHEVs and EVs more often? Why, of course not! They’d just point at me and tell any EV-curious customer, “Go talk to that guy. He can answer all your questions.” Why would a commissioned salesperson pass on a potential sale? There are many reasons that I’ve covered in previous articles, so I won’t belabor the point here. Let’s just say it’s a combination of dealership management and sales compensation plans as well as lack of support from OEMs (see above). I was very fortunate to have leased my car from a dealership with a very forward-thinking owner. He was willing to gamble on my ideas and EV adoption by following my advice. It paid off, in market dominance in plug-in vehicle sales, at least in the traditional OEM world. Still though, the sales manager once told me I was spending too much time answering my EV customers’ questions. He admitted my customer survey results showed that my “customers truly loved me,” but he was focused on volume, not automotive consultancy. Again, like OEMs, if dealers would realize how many people are about to dump their old gasoline-powered vehicles for EVs, generating tons of sales of new EVs and vehicles traded in to get them, that their ignoring this is almost malpractice.
Automotive salespeople: The reasons for the failure here are obvious to those of us that have sat behind the sales desk and I’ve written about it before. Suffice it to say, these people aren’t “sales consultants” as they purport to be. They are sales clerks, much like you’d find at any other retail establishment. “You need that shirt in size medium and blue? I’ll show you where they are.” Of course, there are almost no questions that need to be answered in a shirt sale. A true consultant knows their product intimately. A clerk just knows where they are located and how to ring up the sale. Because EV customers can’t find answers to their questions, they go to dealerships to get the answers they need. Frustrated, when they find no one who can answer their questions, they give up the idea of getting an EV, unless they are willing to do the research themselves. In fact, my personal experience with this is why I started my blog in 2012. I just wanted to get the word out about this great car I discovered, so others could share in my joy, just like when I talk with friends about a great movie I saw or restaurant, where I had a great meal.
Automotive journalists: Again, another group of people that should be leading the way. Unfortunately, they have considered the 1%-2% of auto sales being plug-in as not worth investing their time. They just never comprehended the adoption curves for new technologies (which I’ve written and publicly spoken about, ad nauseam). Failure to grasp this concept caused them to fail their audiences at exactly the time they were desperately needed. Another problem with journalists, especially the ones that do focus on EVs, is that they almost exclusively write about EVs that most people will never be able to afford. 0-60 acceleration times and futuristic amenities (that most people don’t need or care abuou) are what they usually focus on. $90K to $200K+ vehicles may get people to click on an article they posted (and generate ad income) but almost none of the readers that read their articles will ever buy one of those vehicles. More than anything else, this is why many people consider EVs as “rich, white men’s toys,” even though there are lots of affordable EVs out there, once you factor in total cost of ownership and available incentives. Just a few of the many examples are the Nissan Leaf, Hyundai One EV, Kia Niro EV & EV6, Chevy Bolt EV & Bolt EUV, Mini Cooper SE, Mazda MX-30 and Volkswagen ID.4.
Politicians and the Supreme Court: Many studies have shown that the public desire or need for any new legislation succeeding have almost no impact on the success or failure of any legislation. Politicians, more than anything else want to get reelected. Raising the money to do so is a burdensome task, requiring much of their time. Large campaign donations cause them to promote donors agendas, rather than the public’s need for most issues. This was exacerbated by the “Citizens United” decision, which dumped tons of money into political campaigns by wealthy donors and corporations. Both those groups’ members already had the ability to donate to campaigns, as citizens, but by removing the limits previously in place on donations, the voice of the public is drowned out by the dollars of these already powerful constituencies. In order to serve their donors/masters, politicians (especially those of a particular political bent) downplay climate change and oppose electrification of transport. Their stunts have included:
- tossing a snowball on the floor of the Senate, during winter, to show that the Earth isn’t warming,
- saying that wind turbines cause “ear cancer”
- saying climate change is a “Chinese conspiracy” to undermine the U.S. economy.
- (in Europe) declaring natural gas is renewable energy, in order to circumvent the Paris accords.
The actions of these politicians, helped political “journalists” (you know the ones I’m talking about) to state falsely that EVs “spontaneously combust for no reason, at a higher rate than gasoline-powered vehicles,” “will crash the grid,” “will have to have expensive battery packs replaced after only a few years,” “pollute more than internal combustion engines,” and on and on.
Electricity utilities: Although there are stellar examples of electric utilities, like Austin Energy that go to great lengths to educate the EV-curious public, this group is so fragmented geographically, that their most of their efforts (if any) are very limited in impact (if their customers know about their sites at all). It is so obvious that they should join forces (and finances) to create a non-branded, unbiased resource for EV information on the web that it is dumbfounding to me that they haven’t. No one, will benefit more than electricity providers from the move to electric transport. Yes, the auto manufacturers will benefit, but the utilities will get much higher demand for their product, especially at night, when their customers currently (pun intended) reduce their electric use at night. At night, utilities (and the grid) have plenty of extra capacity that goes to waist because the users of the product are asleep, not using their TVs, ovens, computers, dryers, dishwashers, etc.
