August 22, 2016
By:
Walter G. Wright
Category:
Arkansas Environmental, Energy, and Water Law
Arkansas Environmental, Energy, and Water Law
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The Sierra Club has released a report titled Rev Up – Electric Vehicles (“Report”).
The organization describes the Report as a “multi-state study of the electric vehicle (“EV”) shopping experience”.
The Report is authored by Mary Lunetta and Gina Coplon-Newfield of the Sierra Club.
The Report is stated to be based on surveys from Sierra Club volunteers who called or visited 308 different auto dealerships across 10 states to inquire about EVs. The 10 states in which the dealerships were located included:
- California
- Oregon
- Maine
- Massachusetts
- Vermont
- Connecticut
- Maryland
- New York
- New Jersey
- Rhode Island
Each of these states are characterized as having mandates requiring automakers to sell increasing numbers of EVs in those states.
The Report concludes that “there is tremendous room for improvement among the dealerships and the automakers”.
Key findings of the Report included:
- Volunteers were 2 ½ times more likely to find no EV on a dealership lot in the nine other ZEV states than they were in California
- Among the dealerships volunteers visited that had at least one EV, the average number of EVs on lots in California was nearly twice the average number on lots in the nine other ZEV states
- Of respondents who asked to test drive an EV, they were told at 14% of the dealerships that the car was not sufficiently charged, including at 22% of the Chevy dealerships and at 21% of the Ford dealerships visited
- Of the visits to dealerships with at least one EV on the lot, volunteers indicated that about 33% of the time the salesperson did not discuss the federal and state tax credits and rebates available to lower the cost of an EV
- Of the visits to dealerships with at least one EV on the lot, volunteers indicated that only about 50% of the salespeople they spoke with provided information on how to fuel the EV while traveling
- Of the visits to dealerships with at least one EV on the lot, volunteers found that 42% of the time EVs were either “not prominently displayed” or were only “somewhat prominently displayed”
A copy of the Report can be downloaded here.
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