The headline on a recent Gallup poll cracked us up: “Electric Cars Not an Attractive Option to Many Americans.”
It might just as well have read “Americans Don’t Like Getting Poked In the Eyes With Sharp Sticks” or maybe “Americans Like Pounding Their Heads Against the Wall Because It Feels So Good When They Stop.”
The bottom line: No matter how hard the Obama administration tries to cram these lemons down our throats, America doesn’t want them. Not even if gas goes to $10 a gallon.
Gallup has the details:
Americans are less likely to say they would buy an electric car than they are to say they would buy a more fuel-efficient one if gas prices rise to the $5-per-gallon range. Just 12% say at that price, they would be willing to buy such a car that they could drive only a limited number of miles at one time. Another 10% would make such a purchase if gas prices are in the $6- to $7.99-per-gallon range and another 9% if gas prices reach $8 to $10 per gallon. Still, 57% say they would not buy such an electric car no matter the price of gas.
High-income Americans are about twice as likely as those with low incomes to say they would purchase an electric car if gas prices rose to the $5 range. Otherwise, no matter whether respondents view higher prices as temporary or permanent, or the degree of financial hardship high gas prices are causing them, electric cars are equally unpopular as a response to high gas prices.
Who cares? Certainly not an administration committed to destroying the oil industry. Not an administration that believes in the religion of global warming. Not an administration that’s committed to “fundamentally changing America.”
And therein lies the rub. You can fundamentally change America all day long, but you can’t change market forces.
Source: Gallup
