Evidence from the early market for plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) indicates fewer were being purchased (or leased) by women than would be expected based on women’s participation in all new vehicle transactions. The ratio of male-to-female applicants for California’s Clean Vehicle Rebate (CVR) averaged approximately three males for every female from early 2011 to mid-2015; the ratio for all new vehicle transactions is approximately one-to-one. Research on early PEV owners indicated that for their many similarities, females and males talked about their PEVs in ways that suggest female PEV drivers’ experiences may carry less influence to shape the future of PEVs and charging infrastructure than males’. First, there were simply fewer female PEV owners to provide feedback. Second, females were more likely than males to talk about how they adapted to the present capabilities of PEVs while male respondents were more likely to talk about PEVs in terms of testing their limits. For example, female PEV drivers were more likely to talk about how they used the available charging infrastructure; male respondents were more likely to point to where and how to extend infrastructure. This study extends the analysis from early PEV buyers to the population of new-car buyers (of whom the vast majority own gasoline powered internal combustion engine and hybrid electric vehicles (ICEVs and HEVs)) in California. The results presented here are based on data from an on-line survey of new-car buyers in California conducted at the end of 2014 and subsequent inhome interviews with a subset of survey respondents in early 2015. The overall conclusion is that among new-car buyers, female and male respondents share similar distributions of interest in the next new vehicle for their household being a PEV or fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV). For no electric-drive vehicle type did the male-to-female ratio approach that seen in the actual early market for PEVs. Under conditions that most closely correspond to the availability of incentives at the time of the survey, 22% of males and 21% of females express an interest in a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) (a ratio of 1.05 males for every female) and 12% of males and 10% of females express an interest in a battery electric vehicle (BEV) (ratio of 1.20). The difference is greater for FCEVs for which the ratio is 1.76 males for every female.

View the NCST Project Webpage

Will people recharge a vehicle that does not have to be recharged? This, and the degree to which plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) designs emphasize gasoline or electricity, are central to assessing the energy and environmental effects of PHEVs. Plug-in conversions of hybrid vehicles are being made available to (predominately new-car buying) households throughout the Sacramento region for four to six weeks each. The vehicles are instrumented to report travel and energy; households are interviewed and surveyed. Results from the first 34 households—all selected in part because they can recharge a vehicle at home—indicate that on average they will recharge a PHEV about once per day, but with wide variation across households. The PHEV designs created by these households emphasize increased fuel economy rather than all-electric operation—as did the designs of prior representative samples of new-car buyers (who had not driven PHEVs). This result may be due in part to 1) “anchoring” (respondents are driving a PHEV that does not practically allow all-electric operation), and 2) households not creating integrated assessments of gasoline and electricity use/cost from the in-vehicle and internet-based instrumentation. Over the PHEV trials, narratives are co-authored about the PHEVs and their place in the ongoing life-stories of the participants. The primary themes to emerge are changing driving behavior, recharging habits and etiquette, confusion about PHEVs and how they work, and the role of payback analyses and more intuitive assessments of whether PHEVs are “worth it.” Tracing social interactions by the participants about the PHEVs reveals that complex translation of ideas and information about PHEVs is occurring as the PHEV drivers, in particular, use their trial period to reflexively explore lifestyle and identity possibilities of these new vehicles.