More Democrats Need to Get over Myths & Notice the Benefits of EVs — But … – CleanTechnica

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Reading through Steve Hanley’s latest article on how Elon Musk has pushed some Democrats away from the Tesla brand, and also pushed them away from electric cars more broadly (without actually attracting many more Republicans to the EV transition), I have to say that I’m quite disappointed with some people in my party (the Democratic Party). This is an ongoing issue, and it’s more about the natural variation in tech adoption you find across a large population, but it’s disappointing this is still a problem nonetheless, and a growing one according to the research rather than a shrinking one. Also, there are indeed anti-EV talking points that have gotten quite common in Democratic circles — some of which are common across the political aisle, but some of which are not. (Republican circles have their own additional anti-EV talking points of course — and apparently a lot more or a lot more effective ones.)

This is the key part of the study abstract: “Conservatives consistently disfavored purchasing both Teslas and EVs, irrespective of their perceptions of Musk. Liberals showed declining intentions to purchase Teslas compared with other EVs, and, to a lesser extent, declining intentions to purchase EVs in general. We found both effects to be associated with negative perceptions of Musk. Musk’s public persona therefore may have reduced liberal support for Teslas without increasing conservative support.”

Obviously, I understand the concern with Elon Musk and the desire to avoid buying Tesla vehicles and enriching him further. Additionally, even long before this past year, there have been concerns around anti-union behavior at Tesla and some corporate governance concerns. However, even if you have issues with Musk and don’t want to buy a Tesla, there’s no reason that should prejudice you against electric cars more broadly!

Now, here’s where the “but” comes in. While Elon Musk’s political activities have pushed some Democrats away from electric cars generally, overall, Democrats are still much more interested in buying EVs than Republicans are. “There is reason to expect EV uptake to be sensitive to political identity cues. EVs’ symbolic attributes, such as their “eco-friendliness,” relative novelty, and association with science and academics (Sintov et al., 2020), align more closely with liberal than with conservative values and identities, and research indicates that alignment with a consumer good’s symbolic attributes is a strong predictor of a person’s attitude toward and ultimate intention to purchase the good (Orth and De Marchi, 2007),” the study states. “These symbolic associations have generated stereotypes about the types of people who drive EVs, which also have downstream effects for EV purchase intentions. These trends appear to have polarized U.S. public opinion toward EVs, with a reported 71% of Republicans unwilling to consider purchasing an EV compared with 17% of Democrats (Brenan, 2023).” (Emphasis added.) The study does not provide updated figures on those things, instead coming up with different metrics on which ways sentiments are trending. Even though the study does finding declining interest in EVs among liberals, they didn’t change by a dramatic, huge degree. So, Democrats/liberals are still much more likely to buy an EV than Republicans/conservatives.

Getting to the core of this article, though, let’s roll through a handful of key points to show how stupid and crazy it is for Democrats to be prejudiced against EVs.

• The Republican Party is essentially owned by fossil fuel companies. In contrast to other industries where it’s more balanced, fossil fuel companies heavily fund the Republican Party and not the Democratic Party, as well as associated think tanks and nonprofit organizations. What’s the best way to fight back and weaken that political power? Buy electric cars!
• Addressing the climate crisis is one of the top priorities of the Democratic Party. On an individual basis, there may be nothing Democrats can do to stop global warming more than switch to an electric car. One would think that more Democrats would know this, would care about this, and wouldn’t fall for common anti-EV talking points. Unfortunately, though, misinformation is popular for a reason — it’s often effective. People will believe almost anything if it’s got the right hook.
• Democratic political leaders have clearly made support for EVs a key priority for many years. Obama instituted a lot of great EV policies and programs. Biden and Democrats in Congress did so to an even bigger degree when they had power for two years. Democratic political leaders on the Pacific Coast did so as well, driving the US EV market forward. Clearly, helping to promote and scale up EV adoption has been a party priority, because it’s one of the top things we can do to combat climate change. One would think more Democratic voters would take cues from their political leaders and be open to going electric.

While it may be much better than with Republicans, the fact that about one out of five Democrats are unwilling to consider buying an EV is a problem. That’s far too many people for what is a critical solution to both climate crisis and fossil fuel control over politics and policies. Why would one out of five liberals be unwilling to consider buying an EV? I can’t see any point in it. I can understand not being able to find one that fits your needs and budget in some cases, but I can’t understand being unwilling to consider buying one.

When you throw in the Elon Musk factor, obviously, there are reasons why many Democrats would swear off buying a Tesla. (We know that well.) But there’s no reason that should spread into a broader prejudice against all EVs. In fact, if people really wanted to stick it to Elon, they should buy competing electric cars. Buying a model competing closely with a Tesla Model Y or Model 3 (or Cybertruck, Model S, or Model X) and watching that model’s sales go up while Tesla’s sales go down is about as good as one could do if they wanted to make a political point. Deciding to instead swear off EVs and keep giving your money to oil companies makes absolutely no sense from a political point of view. (To be fair, that is the point of view many — or most — Democrats have taken.)