The EV unfaithful: 81% Of Electric Vehicle Owners also Have a Gas-Powered Car

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Analysts and observers — and car manufacturers such as Ford and GM — have long been wondering why Americans have been slower than most places in getting into the EV game.

And now there’s another reason to add to range anxiety, cost, lack of chargers and so forth: It’s that 81% of EV owners also own a gas-powered car.

The data comes from the Automotive Consumer Trends Report, Q2 2024 Quarterly Update. Its research covers 983 million vehicles in North America, including 3.5 million EVs. Among EV owners, another 14% own a hybrid.

The news was not all bad, according to Sherwood Media. “Even though EV owners might not be willing to go totally electric for all their cars,” the site reports, “they aren’t reverting entirely to gas-powered cars, either — 77.4% of EV owners who replaced their car in the past year purchased another EV (though another survey found they might not replace their Tesla with another Tesla).”

The information does raise the question of why more people have not become EV-only owners. It could be the standard reasons: EVs do not have enough range (the average is about 250 miles between charges) or are too expensive (the price of new EVs averages $55,000 in the U.S. compared to a new gas-powered car at $45,000). There are not enough EV chargers. Available public chargers have long lines, or the equipment is broken. EVs eat through tires faster than gas-powered cars (because of torque), and EV batteries charge below their maximum in cold weather.

Whatever the factors, the figures reflect sales data from GM and Ford. Both are, in essence, still gas-powered vehicle manufacturers, and they sell very few EVs despite multi-billion-dollar investments.