A new survey conducted by YouGov, a British organization, shows that ignorance about electric cars contributes to slowing their adoption. Users of thermal vehicles obtained an average score of 2/10 in a quiz on how electric vehicles work.
A great lack of knowledge about electric cars
This study commissioned by the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU), a British NGO, showed that the lack of knowledge about electric cars was a real issue. In all, 1,000 motorists driving thermal cars (petrol or diesel) answered 10 questions about electric cars. Questions that mainly repeated false information conveyed by certain media.
The survey revealed that the misinformation surrounding electrification was not a myth. The majority (57%) of drivers surveyed were only able to correctly answer 2 of the 10 questions asked. 90% of them got less than half of the answers right. Finally, 23% of users of thermal cars surveyed were completely wrong on the entire questionnaire.
The network will not be able to cope, electric cars catch fire...
In detail, 62% of respondents think that it is more expensive to use an electric car. Only 14% of British people surveyed were able to recognize that using an electric model is less expensive than using a thermal model. Also, 41% of drivers of gasoline cars think (wrongly) that electric cars are more likely to catch fire than gasoline cars. Only 24% know that this is false.
More than half (59%) of respondents believe that the UK electricity grid “will not be able to cope” with the electrification of the UK car fleet. Only 20% of them correctly identified this statement as false. National Grid, the UK’s equivalent of EDF, has previously called this a “myth” and assures that the network will be able to “cope with the arrival of millions of electric cars”.
To top it all off, 35% of respondents believe (wrongly, again) that the CO2 emissions of an electric vehicle over its entire lifetime are no lower than those of a gasoline car. And 46% of the 1,000 respondents even disputed the claim that electric models are better for urban air quality than gasoline cars. In short, answers that are quite far from reality.
Proving that misinformation plays a negative role
But that’s not the problem. No, the goal of the study was not to point the finger at drivers of thermal vehicles. Or to say that they are ignorant. The idea was mainly to show how false information can affect the adoption of electric vehicles. Among the drivers who obtained the best score (8/10 or more), 64.6% said that they wanted their next car to be an electric car. That makes sense.
On the other hand, among those who obtained a score of 2/10 or less, only 6.1% want to switch to electric. So that’s the whole problem. To put it simply, the best informed people are 11 times more likely to want to buy an electric car than the others. It will therefore no longer be possible to say that misinformation does not play an important role in the adoption of clean vehicles.
False information that persists
In their conclusions, the authors of the study add that "the least well-informed people are therefore depriving themselves of great savings on a daily basis". Unfortunately, the dissemination of false information about electric cars is recalcitrant.
Regardless, change will take place. It is a necessity to reduce our impact on climate change. A disruption caused mainly by the pollution released into the air we breathe. At Automobile Propre, we also believe we have a role to play at our level. We will continue, for as long as necessary, to demystify and counter false information about electric cars.
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