Most Americans don’t understand hybrids and plug-ins
Years of Chevy Volt marketing worked, at least a little.
Half of America believes the Prius has to be plugged in
According to a study by Maritz Research only about 1 in 5 Americans are very familiar with alternative vehicles, such as hybrid, electric, flex fuel and fuel cell vehicles. In fact almost 50 percent of Americans still believe that the Toyota Prius needs to be plugged in.
Nevertheless, awareness has increased since a similar Maritz study in 2006. Still, the study’s authors suggest much more consumer education is required to increase the purchasing potential of these vehicles.
Overall, almost 3 out of 4 Americans understand that purchasing such vehicles can help reduce foreign oil dependence and/or help the environment. Nevertheless, 60 percent don’t believe they know enough about electric cars, for example, to purchase one. And, even after 10 years on the market, most still misunderstand conventional hybrid cars as well. On the other hand 17 percent of respondents indicated they are willing to purchase an electric car.
In terms of early plug-in marketing, it appears years of Chevy Volt marketing before its launch paid off. 39 percent of respondents were at least familiar with the Volt, although their understanding of the technology is poor. However, only 17 percent of respondents were familiar with the Nissan Leaf.
Get an inside look at the interior of the Volt, see how it will be charged, and how OnStar will keep drivers connected here: http://bit.ly/eyEqpC
Larry,
I think your baby-boomer v Gen Y angle is extremely relevant. Basically baby boomers are buying the bulk of the expensive cars, the large pickups and even most of the hybrids. In my opinion the auto industry is still building cars with a strong focus on baby boomers because that is where the money is still at. But this is going to shift soon.
Gen Y, on the other hand, have already been much less interested in cars in general compared to previous generations – even pre-recession. Likewise, due the recession, they are more focused on the cost-effectiveness of transportation, rather than the image older folks often seek through their vehicles. Of course, what happens over time?
So, Gen Y is currently hard to predict, yet accepting of change. Thus, new technologies will resonate (although I haven’t seen any hybrid/EV specific studies). So too might new business models for transporation, especially if cost-effective – that’s been the driving force behind my auto-drive tangent recently. Auto-drive takes car sharing to a whole new level, a subscription based model even – exactly the kind of business model Shai Agassi and Better Place have predicted for successful plug-in penetration (although not based on auto-drive).
Ultimately, I think the auto industry is on the cusp of revolutionary change, but batteries are only going to be a piece of that change.
Well.. here’s the interesting thing to me – in other areas of technology – smart phones, gps, cellular broadband, home entertainment, large screen TVs, Facebook, Twitter, etc – they embrace the technology – despite their “busy” lives.
In fact, they embrace it so much -you have to warn and threaten them not to be trying o use that technology at the same time they are trying to drive a car.
I hate to say this but when you poll the public on new technologies – you have to pay attention to the under 30… folks because the over 30 folks are much more selective about the technology that they embrace.
The one’s under 30 I suspect ARE paying attention to hybrid technology – are there polls to show this? I think they are pretty sharp and pretty much hard on the bottom line.
The younger generation IMHO is not particularly “green”.
They LIKE the idea of “green credentials” but they are pretty shallow as they are really not out to save the world much less fall on their swords to wean us off of foreign oil or similar.
But they know the hybrid technology – and when it makes economic sense to them – they’ll get it… as long as it has all the technology bells & whistles also.
I’m pretty much a cynic, eh?
Most excellent description Smurf. Got a good chuckle from it. Here are some other definitions from wiki.
# a vehicle using more than one power source
# a vehicle using both internal combustion and electric power sources
Definitions seem pretty logical to me but the article is probably right – most people are either stupid or:
to darn busy to study vehicle types. They just want to get their butts from point A to point B as quickly as possible while either:
A. spending the least amount of money possible.
B. looking hot and sexy or;
C. being seen as someone who hugs trees.
As for me – I vote for everyone being too busy.
I’ve explained that my hybrid operates differently.
If you want to go faster, push the pedal on the right. If you want to go slower, push the pedal on the left.