43% Of Californians To Consider An Electric Car By 2025

People say that to encourage interest in electric cars there need to be more electric cars on the road. The place in America that has the most electric cars is California, so it’s no surprise that Californians express the most interest in buying an electric car.

Vrge Analytics was recently commissioned by CALinnovates to a study of people who live in the Golden State to determine their attitudes about electric cars. In August, 837 people were surveyed. After the data was analyzed, it turned out that 43% said they are considering buying or leasing an electric car before 2025. When the pollsters ratcheted up the description of an electric car to include one with more than 200 miles of range selling for roughly the same price as a traditional car (the average price of a new car or light truck in America is about $32,000), the number of people who who said they would consider buying one surged to 65%.

Nearly 80% of those who took the survey also believe California should do more to encourage the development and deployment of electric vehicles. They told the pollsters that the state should “push the envelope” by doing more to address air pollution and global warming. 66% support the re-authorization of the state’s law to combat global warming, and 60% support increasing tax credits to encourage more Californians to purchase EVs. Just under 70% said they support Governor Brown’s goal of putting 1.5 million EVs on the road by 2025.

Those who took the survey displayed a clear mistrust of traditional automakers. Only 13% think that traditional automakers are really committed to improving air quality through the sale of electric vehicles. That shouldn’t be surprising considering many of the electrics available in the state are compliance cars like the woeful Fiat 500e. 34% think car companies are ambivalent about selling low or zero emissions cars. 25% believe the car companies would really rather just sell “big trucks.”

Here’s a shocker. One half of the good people of California believe the oil and gas industry stands in the way of positive change for California. That is fully understandable, in light of the revelations about ExxonMobil spending millions to deny climate change is happening over the past 30 years. Now if only people would stop voting for representatives who are climate change deniers, perhaps the US could become a leader in the quest to tame carbon emissions instead of a reluctant participant in the process. Please vote responsibly on November 8. We can’t afford to be represented by climate change deniers any longer.

Source and photo credit: Electric Cars Report