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
This post was last modified on June 1, 2011
View Comments (33)
How many extra nuclear powerplants would be needed if every car in north america was an electric one?
Geez, where did you get that photo? Somehow I missed that one. The man is a full-time dork, isn't he?
I live in Texas (as many of you already know.) Until recently I was an admitting nurse for a home health agency. I generally traveled a couple hundrend miles A DAY. And I used to count how many counties I passed through in the course of a day. My lowest count-5 counties. My highest 11. How the hell could I have done my job with an electric car? Not to mention I traveled a great deal on IH 10 and IH 35, where not accellerating into traffic will result in you being squashed like a bug.
I 10 and 35, squashed like a bug is right! Hahaha... those little smart car things are all over the area where we live and I often wonder what would happen if the one between myself and the 2500 Ford truck behind it the other day rear ended the smart car... I can only imagine that the two teen girls in it would have been squashed like bugs. They simply do not look very safe to me, if I had been driving it and I was sitting in between my giant conversion van and that huge truck I would be very afraid. We live in a huge state and an electric car is just not feasible here. The trip to my in-laws is at least a 6 hour trip and that is with one quick stop to top of the gas tank, restrooms and snacks before heading south through the King Ranch, no one wants to run out of gas there and there are definitely no outlets to charge the litte electric cars. They would be trapped and most likely robbed and assaulted by illegals sneaking through. Scary.
2 of my kids live in Denton. I live in San Antonio. The trip takes about 5 hours depending on Austin traffic and how long we spend at the Czech Stop in West. We only get to see each other 2x annually. My other one lives in College Station which, though closer, is almost as difficult to drive because of the dearth ov civilization over by Dime Box. People in New York who walk to work, or who have trains, etc, don't get that the rest of the world is different.
Ah, we love the Czech stop in West... great place! And Austin traffic is horrible! Poor old Dime Box, love that place. We are in Cedar Park, not too bad but not too great either, too many people too many houses, I want to get back out in the country where I belong with my horses, some peace and quiet and not have the HOA breathing down our necks and shoving their ideals down our throats. I'll paint my house when I feel like it.
They started those silly trains here and barely anyone uses them, it hasn't worked out the way they thought it would. I believe the only ones actually using them are transplants from the west and east coasts. We are not about to give up our vehicles in lieu of trains or electric cars.
My son used to live in Austin. He waited for oh, 3-4 years for the high speed rail to get going. .. nothing. I am trying to move to College Station with my eldest. I was raised in small to moderate sized cities and have never felt comfortable in San Antonio. Now that my parents, grandparents, and just about everyone else is gone, I have no reason to stay here.
Completely understand, I grew up in the country 20 miles outside a small farming town and even after 13 years of living here I am still uncomfortable and dislike it. College station is nice, hubby has relatives in Brenham, we go into CS whenever we visit them to eat at some sports chicken shack they love but we haven't had time to visit in years. Too busy with kids, work and business travel. I've never liked San Antonio, Houston or Dallas they've all grown way to big for my liking. Hope you get to move soon and hope you'll be much happier.
Are you referring to the famous (infamous?) Dixie Chicken?
I think thats it, is that place still there? Its been so many years since we've been to College Station. Wow, amazing I remember greasy yummy chicken thats for sure.
Teslea, the system will not let me respond to you directly. The Dixie CHicken is an institution in College Station. It has been there to my personal knowledge over 40 years; I think it may ALWAYS be there, what with Aggie's love of tradition.
That is the place, asked Bob and you're right he says it will always be there when I said to him, that place is still there? Aggies are definitely all about tradition. Been busy with baseball all weekend and today we are off so we got some well deserved rest. Hope you are well and happy~!
I have a very good friend who is a Mercedes-Benz dealer. MB thought they had a real winner on their hands when they began importing the Smart Car from Europe. My friend rebuilt his entire dealership to accommodate the new cars. The result? They bombed. Even a couple years back when gas prices were at record highs, they couldn't give the damn cars away. He's no longer a Smart dealer and his Smart showroom has been reconverted to a pre-owned showroom.
"My policies will necessarily force energy prices to skyrocket."
B. Hussein Obama
When a collectivist gaffes (aka tells his true views) listen and take them at their words.
I don't care how many miles it can get to a charge, I love the sound of a great engine, the way it feels when you beat another car off the line ( yes I was taught to drag race and love it ) its like riding a great horse, the sound of his hooves hitting the ground, his breath echoing in your ears and the feel of his muscles moving while you fly across the earth. A good car with a great engine makes you feel the same way. Still waiting for the kids to grow up so I can find a '57 Chevy truck and drive it for the rest of my life because that is how long it will last. One of the new ones crashes into me, I'll have a love tap and their piece of plastic crap will be demolished... gotta love that.
No, we don't want an electric car that gives us only FORTY miles to the charge.
When the technology is sufficiently advanced and we can get 220-400 miles per charge (similar to a tank of gas) and we can recharge the battery in minutes instead of overnight (again, similar to a tank of gas), THEN we'll talk about it.
Even if they DO come out with a car that gets 400 miles to the charge, and charges instantly, it still won't pull a 17,000 pound RV, so it will be useless to me.
they'll be burning hydrocarbons for the big dogs forever, i figure. Maybe it'll even be cheap, if lots of consumers get around on electrics in 50 years
The 1 thing nobody talks about is the battery these cars need. They are insanely expensive, & they are a real environmental nightmare.
Yeah, and if you run out of juice on the highway (because you decided to play the radio louder than usual, or maybe use the -gasp- cigarette lighter) it's not like you can walk down to the nearest substation and buy a few hundred volts to get you going again.
I used to work a summer job for a really wealthy guy in Tampa, Florida who had a really large antique automobile collection. He had one of the earliest electric cars to ever come off an assembly line anywhere. Looking at then and comparing it to now, not much has changed...no wonder nobody wants one. They were a novelty in the 1910's and they are a novelty now. They suffered the same problems then that they do now and electricity is much more abundant now than it was near the turn of the 20th century. The biggest problem with the electric car is not that it's an option but that it's an option that's being forced off onto the American consumer...that's why it's unpopular. The way most Americans are, we'll probably start walking to work before we let some faceless, nameless bureaucrat force us to buy something we don't want or need.
The only thing electric about OBOZO is his mouth and his actions to bankrupt our country as fast as he can. OBAMAGATE him now using his own forged existence.
Here's some help for your argument!
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=305705
These idiots dont realize that the electric power is coming mostly from coal power plants..they should call the cars "coal burning cars" instead of electric cars, that'd really rile up the environmentalists
I call 'em nucular cars.
Is that the correct spelling for nucular? My spell checker doesn't like it.
HA HA HA Its nuclear.
Oh, no, Deb. It's "nucular". If it was "nuclear", it wouldn't drive lefties straight up the wall.
Just ask George Bush.
The biggest problem is that our power grid won't be able to handle all the electric cars the eco-leftist a-holes want to push us into.
The only thing electric that is really working for Obama is the current he sends up Chrissy Matthews' leg.