America’s switch to electric vehicles is facing all kinds of roadblocks, whether it’s politicians who don’t believe we should be going electric, insufficient investment in charging infrastructure or just a lack of electric options that people actually want to buy. Now, a new study has revealed that the number of Americans that believe in EVs’ one real selling point is dwindling.
People might buy an electric car for a number of different reasons, but one of the biggest selling points is their reduced emissions and lower environmental impact over their lifetime. However, a new study has found that the number of Americans that actually believe EVs are better for the planet than gas-powered cars is dropping, reports NPR. As the site explains:
The net benefits of EVs have been frequently fact-checked, including by NPR. “No technology is perfect, but the electric vehicles are going to offer a significant benefit as compared to the internal combustion engine vehicles,” Jessika Trancik, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, told NPR this spring.
It’s important to ask these questions about EVs’ hidden costs, Trancik says. But they have been answered “exhaustively” — her word — and a widerange of organizations have confirmed that EVs still beat gas.
But the share of car-buying Americans who believe that has gone down by 5 percentage points in the last two years, from 63% to 58%, according to data that the market research firm Ipsos shared exclusively with NPR.
Unsurprisingly, the number of people that believe EVs are better for the planet than gas cars is even lower in people.
A version of this article originally appeared on Jalopnik’s The Morning Shift.
