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New Study: Only 26% of U.S. households are familiar with EVs. New Study: Only 26% of U.S. households are familiar with EVs.

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New Study: Only 26% of U.S. households are familiar with EVs.

Graph: Parks Associates

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A new study shows that only 26% of U.S. households are familiar with EVs but this is about to change. In the recent study by Parks Associates, it was noted that as Tesla became a household name, purchase intention for EVs has gone up 6%.

I wrote about this here, and Teslarati was invited to attend to the virtual session where Chris White, the senior analyst who conducted the study, led a virtual presentation.

According to the study,

“Only 26% of US broadband households report high familiarity with electric vehicles but that’s about to change. These sessions address the coming surge of EVs on the market, the potentially explosive EV growth in adoption, and the implications for consumers, the grid, and needed infrastructure.”

Electric Vehicles: A New Era for Consumers

Graph: Parks Associates

During the virtual session, Chris White explained some of the findings of the study. Some of these include current EV owner demographics, EV owner interest in clean energy, EV owners’ high-tech affinity, lack of knowledge of EV features, and how other issues such as the chip shortage are affecting both EV and non-EV markets.

The report was based on data from Q4 2021.

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Understanding Current EV Owners

Current EV owners are young affluent and have dual incomes. Many are from a multifamily environment and use their EVs for work and school.

They use their vehicles regularly. It’s important to highlight since EVs have the image of a rare or exotic car that doesn’t have enough range. This is changing.

As the EV market continues to grow, the demographics of the current EV owners will most likely change. For now, there’s a 16% high intention of purchasing EVs among non-owners. Previous that was 10%.

That number didn’t include the current EV owners who either want to add a new EV or replace an old one.

EV Owners 3x likely to use renewable energy

Graph: Parks Associates

Chris White’s research showed that EV buyers are three times more likely to live in solar communities or have an interest in renewable energy powering their homes. They are also 2.5 to 5 times more willing to pay more for renewable energy.

The research shows that EV owners care about their carbon footprint and the impact on the environment.

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EV owners are much more likely to own a security system or a smart home device than non-EV owners, according to the research

They xcare about technology and have a higher affinity for tech than non-EV owners.

Lack of familiarity with EV features.

Graph: Parks Associates

One of the key points in the study shows that although EVs are more popular today, there is a lack of familiarity with their features.

Chris pointed out that 18% of the consumers polled indicated familiarity with EV features. That isn’t a lot.

Features that many aren’t familiar with include EV charging at home minimizing cost when automatically charging during off-peak hours, auto insurance savings for EV owners, second-life EV batteries reused as a power source in disaster areas, and available tax incentives.

Second-life EV batteries are expected to reach over $34 billion by 2027 according to Research and Markets. You can read more about this here.

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EV Features that could persuade non-owners to buy an EV

Graph: Parks Associates

The study included the top features that could persuade non-EV owners to switch to electricity. The number one feature was for an EV to run 400 miles or longer on a single charge.

During the session, Chris pointed out that this is still rare and that most EVs are in the 200-300 mile range.

Other features included widespread charging stations and electricity plans that make owning an EV more affordable than owning an ICE vehicle. These are coming and soon people will see for themselves that EVs meet the criteria they are looking for.

Purchase Inhibitors.

Graph: Parks Associates

The number one purchase inhibitor that non-EV owners are concerned about are the cost of an EV and charging.

The research showed that 51% of the consumers who participated in the study cited charging-related issues.

Another issue was the lack of trust in the design of EVs,

Issues that impact both EV and non-EV purchases

We often see issues such as the semiconductor chip shortage and critical minerals for EV batteries impacting the EV market. However, something that impacts both markets includes the chip shortage, Putin invading Ukraine, and the national gas prices being on the rise.

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The latter can create pain at the pump which is something that encourages people to make the switch to EVs. Last month, I wrote about Dobson who purchased a Tesla due to several factors but especially high gas prices.

EVs will be everywhere soon.

Image credit: Park Associates

The research also revealed that soon, EVs will be everywhere.

Chris spoke about the Amazon and Rivian partnership, Walmart’s purchase of Canoo EVs, Revel’s fleet of Tesla taxis in New York, and the contract between NASA and Canoo.

And this is just on the commercial side. Other automakers are producing and marketing their own EVs to compete with Tesla.

Disclaimer: Johnna is long Tesla. 

I’d love to hear from you! If you have any comments, concerns, or see a typo, you can email me at johnna@teslarati.com. You can also reach me on Twitter @JohnnaCrider1

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Ford considers drastic move with F-150 Lightning: ‘The demand is just not there’

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Credit: Ford Motor Company

Ford is considering a drastic move with its F-150 Lightning, which was the best-selling EV pickup on the market last quarter, beating out Tesla’s Cybertruck.

Ford has had a tumultuous entrance into its more expanded electric vehicle strategy over the past several years. At one point, the company was widely considered to be the most invested legacy automaker in the transition to electrification, but as the company has seen some real backtracking in terms of its sales and demand, it is cooling down its commitment.

At the end of Q3, it seemed to already be considering making some moves to cool off its EV ambitions, especially as the $7,500 EV tax credit was removed and it appeared that consumers would be less attracted to its vehicles without this sizeable discount.

Now, according to a new report from the Wall Street Journal, Ford is considering scrapping the F-150 Lightning altogether, as one employee said “the demand is just not there.”

Despite it being the best-selling EV pickup in the U.S. last quarter, the sales simply do not match up with the pricing, and financially, it is not the time to try to dive further into a project that is not making a profit. Ford has been dwindling in its commitment to EVs over the past several quarters, and its profits are reflecting a slowing interest in its electric vehicles.

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Simply put, Ford’s combustion engine lineup of pickups in the F-Series is, by far, the best-selling division of trucks globally. Ford brought an awesome product forth with the Lightning, a mirror of the gas-powered F-Series that had a variety of trim levels for whatever the truck would be used for by the consumer.

However, the demand and sales have caused Ford to take a loss on its electric truck: figures from early last year indicated it was losing between $100,000 and $132,000 per vehicle.

It is not an official announcement, as Ford has not publicly said anything regarding its plans for the Lightning at this time.

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Elon Musk

Tesla schedules Roadster unveiling event, and you won’t believe when it is

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Tesla has tentatively scheduled its unveiling event for the Roadster’s next-generation iteration, and you will not believe the date the company picked for it.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said during the 2025 Annual Shareholders Meeting that the company is aiming for an April 1 demo event.

Yes, April Fools’ Day.

Tesla originally aimed for its “most epic demo” to take place at the end of this year. However, the writing on the wall as 2025 winds down seemed to indicate the company was not quite ready to show off everything it plans to implement into the Roadster.

Its capabilities have been teased quite heavily throughout most of the year, but the biggest hints came last week when Musk appeared on the Joe Rogan Experience Podcast.

He said:

“Whether it’s good or bad, it will be unforgettable. My friend Peter Thiel once reflected that the future was supposed to have flying cars, but we don’t have flying cars. I think if Peter wants a flying car, he should be able to buy one…I think it has a shot at being the most memorable product unveil ever. [It will be unveiled] hopefully before the end of the year. You know, we need to make sure that it works. This is some crazy technology in this car. Let’s just put it this way: if you took all the James Bond cars and combined them, it’s crazier than that.”

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The Roadster has been somewhat of a letdown, at least in its newest version, thus far. Tesla has routinely delayed the project, putting those who put lofty down payments on the car in a weird limbo, lost at what to do.

One notable pre-orderer cancelled his reservation last week and got in a spat with Musk about it.

Now that there is a definitive date for the Roadster unveiling, Musk and Co. should have a more definitive cutoff date for features and capabilities. Chief Designer Franz von Holzhausen said earlier this year that when they showed Musk what they had done with the Roadster, the CEO encouraged them to do even more with it.

This delayed things further.

Musk also said he believes production would begin between 12 and 18 months after the unveiling, putting it out sometime in 2027.

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Elon Musk

Tesla (TSLA) shareholders officially approve Elon Musk’s 2025 performance award

To earn his landmark pay package, Musk would be required to lift Tesla’s market capitalization from about $1.1 trillion today to $8.5 trillion over the next decade.

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Justin Pacheco, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk has officially approved his 2025 Performance Award, a landmark pay package that could make him the world’s first trillionaire and make Tesla the most valuable company in the world by a mile. 

The 2025 CEO Performance Award was officially approved by Tesla shareholders at the 2025 Annual Shareholder Meeting.

Elon Musk‘s landmark pay package

As per Tesla, more than 75% of the shareholders approved Elon Musk’s 2025 CEO Performance Award. It was then unsurprising that the approval of Elon Musk’s pay plan received overwhelming applause from the event’s attendees.

The CEO took to the stage with much enthusiasm, welcoming every shareholder to the event and dancing briefly on stage. Optimus also danced on stage smoothly, demonstrating its improved movements to much appause.

Elon Musk’s 10-year targets

To earn his 2025 CEO Performance Award, Musk would be required to grow Tesla’s market capitalization from about $1.1 trillion today to $8.5 trillion over the next decade. At that level, Tesla would surpass every major public company in existence. The compensation plan also requires Tesla’s operating profit to grow from $17 billion last year to $400 billion annually. 

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Apart from leading Tesla to become the world’s biggest company in history, Musk is also required to hit several product targets for the electric vehicle maker. These include the delivery of 20 million Tesla vehicles cumulatively, 10 million active FSD subscriptions, 1 million Tesla bots delivered, and 1 million Robotaxis in operation.

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