Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Green Culture, Green Daily
Students want your help to find out where demand for EVs is coming from
Tom and Mikey want to know more about electric cars. First, they did the requisite readings. But now they want to get some original data about the people and groups pushing for EVs. To get that data, the two set up an online survey at Demand for Electric Vehicles. As Tom wrote to AutoblogGreen: We want to know what the public is thinking about EVs and tie it to some potential marketing strategies. One part of our study requires survey analysis, and for this, we have decided to make an online survey to reach out to many people. ... It is composed of 20 multiple-choice questions and takes roughly 3 minutes to complete. Our goal is 500 completed surveys in 10 days. We're beginning day 3 and we have 105 surveys. We plan to share these results after collecting 500 and writing a report on these results. We share the data in order to help prove that there is a Demand for Electric Vehicles.
As of today, day four, 123 surveys have been filled out (one of them by me). While we don't need an online survey to prove there is a healthy demand for electric vehicles, but Tom and Mikey want to see some numbers. Self-selected? Sure, but Tom and Mikey do have these adorable little avatars.
[Source: Demand4EV, submitted by Thomas]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
EvenSteven 3:06PM (5/28/2008)
Of course there is a demand for EV cars! As long as electricity is less expensive than gasoline there will be a damand for EVs. There is no demand to spend 2x to 3x as much for a EV that has less performance though. Any company that can make an EV with a good range 150-250 miles, good speed and a useful package, there will be a revolution over night. Too bad there are 0 option like this yet, we will get there. If one could have the option of a gas Camry vs a EV Camry that cost the same I would bet my right arm people would take the EV everytime (given a good range and speed). The price is very important. Most consumers will do that math and figure how much gas they can buy vs the premium for the EV. 2-4K over a Prius is ok but 10K-15k over a Prius is out of the question. I think under 30k is the sweet spot.
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jackmon 3:32PM (5/28/2008)
I generally agree with you EvenSteven, especially about the idea that the price is important. But I tend to think the sweet spot is just a little lower for mass adoption. An electric car should in theory be less costly than a gas powered car. Far fewer moving parts, less complexity. I realize that battery tech is the bottleneck, but once we get past that I would really hope highway capable EVs come down below $20k. Ideally, they would be cheaper than their gas powered equivalent.
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paulwesterberg 5:18PM (5/28/2008)
The survey, created by marketriods asks this inane if you believe this lie:
"Driving alternative-fuel vehicles can reduce Global Warming."
Driving electric/hybrid vehicles cannot cure global warming, it can only contribute to global warming less than driving and ICE SUV. Unless electric vehicles also contained a magical C02 capture/sequester component they cannot REDUCE global warming. Its too bad we don't have real truth in advertising laws.
No radiator, No fuel pump, no oil pump, no oil changes, no air filter, no transmission, no starter moter, no alternator, no catalitic converter, no muffler, no gas tank, no fuel filter, pretty much zero maintenance other than recycling battery packs every once in awhile.
Bonuses: Easy 4 wheel drive with traction control by using distributed electric motors.
Drawback: No ICE to keep you toasty in the winter.
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Snowdog 5:41PM (5/28/2008)
Self selecting surveys are pointless. There may be demand, but I don't think it is as high as people on ABG think.
Issue:
Batteries: Still the weak link. Electric cars are essentially a dream. They are magnitude better than Gassers. Except for one giant fly in the ointment. The batteries which weigh too much, take up too much room, cost too much money, don't hold enough energy (short range) and have too short a lifespan.
Not many people in the real world will buy an expensive short range vehicle that you can't even take on a road trip.
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Karkus 5:58PM (5/28/2008)
Yep, self-selecting surveys like this are no good, and that global warming question is bad.
Also, the question about oil running out is silly. The answer is Never (there will always be some oil somewhere that they can dig up).
I think they wanted to ask when peak oil was going to happen. To that I would have answered "now".
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David Wright 6:14PM (5/28/2008)
I agree its a very poorly constructed survey. I am a strong advocate of EVs but not impressed by the survey design or purpose. A bit pointless really.
As can be seen from the answers given here - demand is already known to exist - and the reason it isn't being satisfied is for the obvious reasons given. No survey needed. Just deliver the affordable practical EVs and everyone will buy them.
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Arnie 9:37AM (5/29/2008)
I designed surveys for years and this one gets an F. It's basically about global warming - there's no assumption anything else could drive demand for ev's. And the sample is evidently Internet Explorer users so it's not going to represent any population very well. Not that it would anyway.
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Tom & Mikey 3:58PM (5/29/2008)
Hi,
I believe time it's time to respond to some of your comments and concerns. Mikey and I are both enthusiasts when it comes to Electric Vehicles. We value your feedback/criticism and are debating many of the questions that you raise. As students, we are trying to understand the primary concepts of this industry, and we feel that our survey is pointing us in this direction despite what some people have commented.
We have not satisfied all our critics, but we feel successful. Tons of people are completing our survey. We reached our milestone of obtaining 500 surveys and now we're shooting for a new milestone. Our survey was created to address the majority of people that don't know so much about EVs or the related terminology. As our visitor to survey-complete ratios is showing, people are not getting frustrated with our survey and are actually taking the time to finish it.
To the EV-fans that have criticized us, remember that we are part of the same team. We want EVs on our streets just as much as you. People have different approaches to obtain this. The simple questions we used can produce innovative marketing strategies to capture people's attention. And that is our objective besides the generating more interests for EVs. We're excited that we built such a project.
Off-topic, what is meant by "self-selecting" surveys? Please elaborate.....
If you have any suggestions for better questions, please contact us through our site. All feedback is important to our success . We're not pros. We're students in the learning process.
Thanks again and we look forward to your feedback.
A big thank you to autobloggreen for helping us spread our effort.
Best regards,
Tom and Mikey
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Wise Golden 7:08PM (5/29/2008)
Self selecting means that you have a goal for the results of the survey. You stated in your mission that you goal was to prove demand for EV's. That's a surveying no-no.
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Chris M 9:03PM (5/29/2008)
Since almost all the people filling out the survey were already interested in EVs, there is a "selection bias" in favor of EVs.
If your intent is to gauge the attitudes of those interested in EVs, you've done very well, but if your intent is to gauge the attitudes of the general public, your survey is too biased to be of much use.
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Jim McCullough 4:22PM (5/31/2008)
I’ve fallen from the battery-only EV (BEV) religion...due to my impatience with the USA’s car market (lack of good BEV product). BEVs are only good in multicar (or car-sharing) households with 1+ fossil-fuel cars for long trips. Been there...done that.
As an aging boomer car buyer (returning to 1-car only), not car builder, I’m now waiting for a one-car-does-all electric+fossil economy hybrid (HEV) solution. Make it a light, aerodynamic, 4+ seat plug-in HEV hatchback, mini-wagon or van with 20-40-60 EV-only gas-free mile options. $0.05/mile or less is my economy target ($5 gas=100 mpg min)($0.12 electricity =2.4 mile/kwh min). Battery and engine life costs are negotiable.
VW’s new Golf TDI hybrid concept looks interesting (DSG tranny is a plus). Volvo had a 100-mpg proto (maybe several?) Years ago. GM’s 90-91? HX3 series HEV van concept was nice. A Prius wagon might attract me. Otherwise, I may become a reluctant D.I.Y. car builder (at least 1x personal proto).
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Tom & Mikey 6:04PM (6/01/2008)
Hi,
Thanks for your continuing support. In response to all your feedback we have decided to include a question suggestion form on the homepage in order to create "version 2" of this survey.
At the moment we have nearly 700 surveys completed and a repsonse rate of over 75%. People all around the world are starting to respond to the survey. We hope to almost double our target of 500 completed Surveys.
In response to Chris M, we have decided to start marketing our site to "non" EV enthusiasts in order to reduce the bias in the repsonses.
I still think it is important that we gauge the interest of EV enthusiasts as they still cannot buy EVs. Do you have any ideas how we can improve the targeting of our survey?
Cheers
Tom
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Tom 8:24AM (12/08/2008)
Hi all,
Sorry for the delay. The results of our survey have been published on our site! Thanks again for all the support.
Check it out at demand4ev.com!
I hope that this information can be useful to you.
Cheers
Tom
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