Climate

When it comes to EV adoption, education is key

Nearly half of U.S. adults have heard nothing at all about EV incentives, according to a new Consumer Reports survey. But it’s these incentives that could nudge people toward a purchase.

Electric car charging

Many people are curious about adopting EVs.

Photo: Ernest Ojeh/Unsplash

While just a small sliver of the public currently owns an electric vehicle, many more people are EV-curious, according to a new survey commissioned by Consumer Reports.

That gulf between current EV customers (roughly 2% of the public) and the potential customers (at least 36%) represents not only a fertile market both for the car companies themselves, but also the potential that the public will buy into a decarbonized transportation sector sooner rather than later.

While just 14% say they would “definitely” buy or lease an EV, an additional 22% said they would “seriously consider” doing so, assuming they were in the market. Meanwhile, 28% said they would not even consider it, and the rest said they may consider one in the future, but they have some nagging reservations about making the switch.



However, not all demographics are equally eager about a potential EV purchase. Men are likelier than women to “definitely” or “seriously” consider an EV, as are those with higher levels of education or income. Young adults and those living in urban areas are also demographically inclined toward EV ownership.

More generally, familiarity with “the fundamentals of owning an electric-only vehicle” tends to make a person more likely to consider buying or leasing one. However, only 9% of people said they are “very” familiar, even after a year of splashy prime-time advertising of EVs.

Accordingly, EV skeptics tend to be most wary of the aspects of ownership that bear little resemblance to owning a gas-powered vehicle. For instance, among the respondents who said they wouldn’t immediately consider an EV purchase, 61% said charging logistics represented a major barrier. A majority of respondents also reported that vehicle range (55%) and overall costs of ownership (52%) are concerns.

The survey asked the cost-concerned respondents which aspect of costs proved most worrisome, and the overall purchase price of EVs — which still tend to be higher for EVs than for gas-powered cars — topped the list, at 58%. And maintenance and repair costs, which tend to be lower for EVs than for gas-powered alternatives, were a concern for 40% of those who said they had cost-related worries.

But awareness of the incentives — including those that could offset some of these costs — available to EV purchasers remains low, suggesting that the EV sector has some major educational hurdles to clear if it wants to speed adoption.



Nearly half (46%) of U.S. adults have heard nothing at all about EV incentives. These potential incentives include tax rebates, exemptions from emissions inspection and home charger installation discounts.

Just 34% of the public has heard about tax rebates or discounts available to offset the purchase price or lease, and 28% has heard about tax credits applied at a later date. Many EVs are eligible for both federal- and state-level credits when purchased new, though more significant federal tax credits have reportedly been stripped from a potential spending bill under consideration by Congress.

But the survey also found that incentives — assuming people know they’re available — could nudge people toward purchasing an EV. Tax rebates applied at the time of purchase or lease are particularly encouraging (53%), followed by discounts to install home charging infrastructure (49%).

The survey was performed by NORC at the University of Chicago from Jan. 27 to Feb. 18, 2022, among a representative sample of 8,027 U.S. adults. It has a margin of error of 1.59 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.

Fintech

Judge Zia Faruqui is trying to teach you crypto, one ‘SNL’ reference at a time

His decisions on major cryptocurrency cases have quoted "The Big Lebowski," "SNL," and "Dr. Strangelove." That’s because he wants you — yes, you — to read them.

The ways Zia Faruqui (right) has weighed on cases that have come before him can give lawyers clues as to what legal frameworks will pass muster.

Photo: Carolyn Van Houten/The Washington Post via Getty Images

“Cryptocurrency and related software analytics tools are ‘The wave of the future, Dude. One hundred percent electronic.’”

That’s not a quote from "The Big Lebowski" — at least, not directly. It’s a quote from a Washington, D.C., district court memorandum opinion on the role cryptocurrency analytics tools can play in government investigations. The author is Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui.

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Veronica Irwin

Veronica Irwin (@vronirwin) is a San Francisco-based reporter at Protocol covering fintech. Previously she was at the San Francisco Examiner, covering tech from a hyper-local angle. Before that, her byline was featured in SF Weekly, The Nation, Techworker, Ms. Magazine and The Frisc.

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FTA
The Financial Technology Association (FTA) represents industry leaders shaping the future of finance. We champion the power of technology-centered financial services and advocate for the modernization of financial regulation to support inclusion and responsible innovation.
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AWS CEO: The cloud isn’t just about technology

As AWS preps for its annual re:Invent conference, Adam Selipsky talks product strategy, support for hybrid environments, and the value of the cloud in uncertain economic times.

Photo: Noah Berger/Getty Images for Amazon Web Services

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Donna Goodison

Donna Goodison (@dgoodison) is Protocol's senior reporter focusing on enterprise infrastructure technology, from the 'Big 3' cloud computing providers to data centers. She previously covered the public cloud at CRN after 15 years as a business reporter for the Boston Herald. Based in Massachusetts, she also has worked as a Boston Globe freelancer, business reporter at the Boston Business Journal and real estate reporter at Banker & Tradesman after toiling at weekly newspapers.

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We launched Protocol in February 2020 to cover the evolving power center of tech. It is with deep sadness that just under three years later, we are winding down the publication.

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Enterprise

Why large enterprises struggle to find suitable platforms for MLops

As companies expand their use of AI beyond running just a few machine learning models, and as larger enterprises go from deploying hundreds of models to thousands and even millions of models, ML practitioners say that they have yet to find what they need from prepackaged MLops systems.

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Photo: artpartner-images via Getty Images

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Some MLops platforms are not well-suited for maintaining even more than 10 machine learning models when it comes to keeping track of data, navigating their user interfaces, or reporting capabilities, Matthew Nokleby, machine learning manager for Lily AI’s product intelligence team, told Protocol earlier this year. “The duct tape starts to show,” he said.

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