Polestar study suggests US drivers do not buy EVs for environmental reasons as record 50,000 global orders taken

[Redaktion]

A Polestar survey found that the primary reason American drivers switched from combustion engines to electric vehicles was not the environment. Instead, most respondents cited technology and image as the reason they would buy an EV. Polestar also recently announced its H1 2022 results, including a record 50,000 orders taken globally.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Polestar-study-suggests-US-drivers-do-not-buy-EVs-for-environmental-reasons-as-record-50-000-global-orders-taken.637525.0.html

[vertigo]

Funny, this is exactly what I said recently, only without a study to back it up.

[Ian]

So it is image and nothing more

[FDAD]

People don't give a s*** about the environment... They o my care about their wallets and as soon as we die out the better is for this earth..

[Luis Peralta]

Lol... No EV in the world has been bought (and sold) for environmental reasons.

Who ever cares about the environment should get an hybrid instead: Smaller battery + lower ICE consumption equals overall lower CO2 emissions in the whole lifespan of the vehicle.

And the higher the range of the EVs (more batteries) the worse it gets to the environment.

I understand people choosing EVs thinking on their wallets, but its just plain dumb whoever thinks an EV is better for the environment... No vehicle gets out of the stand with 0 CO2 emitted.

[xaviersjs]

Most analysis I've seen put EVs breaking even with gasoline cars after 10k-30k miles driven, which for most Americans means fewer GHG emissions in the first year of ownership. It depends on what you buy (I'm looking at you Hummer), but this article reuters .com business/autos-transportation/when-do-electric-vehicles-become-cleaner-than-gasoline-cars-2021-06-29/ puts it at 13k miles on average in the US, and only 8k in Norway where renewables are much more common for the grid. For most Americans, that's inside of a year. So, yeah, total lifetime emissions, still way less for an ev than even a 50 mph hybrid.

[vertigo]

Most analysis I've seen put EVs breaking even with gasoline cars after 10k-30k miles driven, which for most Americans means fewer GHG emissions in the first year of ownership. It depends on what you buy (I'm looking at you Hummer), but this article reuters .com business/autos-transportation/when-do-electric-vehicles-become-cleaner-than-gasoline-cars-2021-06-29/ puts it at 13k miles on average in the US, and only 8k in Norway where renewables are much more common for the grid. For most Americans, that's inside of a year. So, yeah, total lifetime emissions, still way less for an ev than even a 50 mph hybrid.

It's nice to see the environmental cost of actually building the cars factored in, instead of what I usually see which is just the difference between the two just while being used. Still, it doesn't take into account many other factors:

• the impact of the batteries at the vehicles' EOL (granted, there's significant recycling occurring here, but we all know not everything that can or should be recycled actually is)
• that of fires, especially like the one that sunk an entire ship of EVs (hopefully, lessons were at least learned that will prevent this in the future, but far too often do we not learn from prior mistakes for me to assume that will happen)
• the possibility that EVs won't last as long (if an EV lasts 200k and a similar ICE lasts 250k, that additional use of the heavier polluter has to be weighed to bring its average pollution down for a more fair comparison)
• the fact that people tend to drive more when it's cheaper, therefore with an EV being cheaper and, presumably greener, people will be more inclined to drive more than they otherwise would
• people taking advantage of that cheaper, "greener" fuel to do things like run the AC for hours to keep the car cool on a hot day
  
• etc

Point being there are many, many factors that need to be accounted for to determine if they're really better, and even most stories and studies on EVs ignore most of those factors, and certainly most people do. If EVs are truly better or, at least, comparable, once the total picture is considered, then that's great. But I've yet to see a total picture presented, and I know for a fact most people that drive EVs haven't considered it (or likely even more than a small fraction of it), hence my previous statement about their true reasons for buying them, which has been supported by this poll.

[Jay2023]

Seriously what difference does it make why they buy? We should be happy that they are buying! purchasing ultimately will lower emissions globally, that's what's important.