In a nutshell, Plug In America says the cars aren’t the problem. Indeed, satisfaction levels tend to be high for cars like the Tesla Roadster and Model S, Nissan Leaf and Chevrolet Volt. Since mass-produced plug-ins started hitting US roads four years ago, about 300,000 have been sold, so that means a lot of happy customers.
But as the number of plug-in vehicle models available in the US (most of them just in California) doubles to about 40 by the end of next year, national and regional government entities need to do a better job coming up with a unified message touting the attributes of plug-in vehicles in order to reach Plug In America’s target of having electric vehicles account for 80 percent of US vehicles by 2050. The analysis comes from a recent 35-page report titled The Promotion of Electric Vehicles in the United States.
Plug In America says the Multi-State ZEV Action Plan that eight states launched in 2013 to get 3.3 million electric vehicles on their roads within the next decade is a good starting point. Still, overall public efforts remain spotty, especially in the flyover states, where neither governments nor automakers are doing an optimal job to ensure those residents get the message.
