A new study shows EV demand is still out there, it just looks different than it did a few years ago.
Claims that electric vehicles don't have enough demand may be overblown.
A new study from GBK Collective, published Thursday, found that half of the more than 2,000 US car consumers they interviewed were considering either an electric or a hybrid car for their next vehicle purchase.
This far outweighs the current ownership trends found in the study. Only 14% of those surveyed already own a plug-in or hybrid vehicle of some kind. It's another piece of evidence of a huge opportunity for EV manufacturers to home in on the needs of these green car-curious consumers.
"These are not the same kind of customers who created the initial EV market," GBK President Jeremy Korst told Business Insider in an interview.
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"These are later adopters, and because of that, they're not as driven by innovation or even design," Korst said. "They have more functional needs, and they're much more pragmatic and thinking about the total cost of ownership both in price and in effort, like, 'how do I charge so what's that going to take? How much time is it going to take me?'"
I have seriously considered an EV and will probably get one in the next few years but my biggest problem with them is that all of them have huge fucking tablet screens. I want a EV that has physical buttons and if you are going to use digital screens, I want it in the same layout as the traditional style. IF I have to have a tablet screen, I want it to be minimal.
I don't want to have to use a menu to turn on the fucking windshield wipers!
Volvo XC40 Recharge has buttons for most things (volume, wipers, defrost, ...) though climate is on the touchscreen which is annoying. Navigation on the touchscreen is nice. The software is a bit glitchy, though the car itself is very nice.
But I strongly agree: searching for buttons was a big part of our car search.
I would definitely consider a Volvo but it is on the more expensive end and isn't eligible for the EV rebate in the USA. Still, it is one of the better looking EVs
My first-gen Chevy Volt has all the buttons. And I mean ALL the buttons. I'd say it has too many buttons, but it's a particular quirkiness that I kind of like; the future as imagined in the '90s. Very Star Trek TNG shuttle craft aesthetic.
I have an EV, it has physical controls on stalks in the same place as a regular car for the indicators, windscreen wipers, lights, etc. You only need to use the tablet for climate controls and nav/music - all of which can be voice activated.
Tesla you press the button on the left stalk to make wipers move once, which also brings up the wiper menu on the screen to keep them on. I want more physical buttons too but it's not terrible this way.