California is leaps and bounds ahead of the rest of America when it comes to electric vehicle adoption, but so far most of those EVs are owned by one sort of dude.
"When we survey who current customers are of electric vehicles, it's disproportionately white wealthy older men who live in this geographical region or similar regions," said Courtney Prideaux Smith, chief deputy director of the California Energy Commission, during a panel at the Silicon Valley Energy Summit. The Stanford Precourt Institute for Energy just released video last week that included Smith's remarks.
California officials don't want to seem ungrateful to the demographic they call "early adopters" of EV technology—even though some analysts think they make EVs seem less accessible to others.
"This particular demographic is important, right? They have the social and economic privilege to be able to be first adopters, and we wouldn't be where we are, here in the state, in terms of vehicle adoption, if it wasn't for that demographic."
Nonetheless state officials know they have to reach beyond that demographic if they hope to achieve the state's goal to have 5 million zero-emission vehicles on the road by 2050. There are currently about half a million, which account for just under 5 percent of the state's vehicle population.
"Now our opportunity and our challenge is to transition beyond that early adopter market and really diversify the kinds of folks who are driving electric."
Smith urges outreach to five groups in particular:
5 Kinds Of People California Wants To Put In Electric Vehicles
Next post: Premium Bus Lines Emerge, Challenging Airlines
Previous post: Let Exelon Haggle With Your Car Dealer
