Federal and state policies call for a rapid transition of all new consumer vehicle purchases to electric vehicles (EVs). Achieving the requisite growth in the number of EV buyers needed to reach the goal of 100% new vehicle sales requires moving past the small minority of households who’ve acquired EVs to date. The goal also requires households to only buy EVs once they start to do so; they can’t discontinue. This research examines both passive and active consumer resistance to EVs. Passive resistance may be characterized as never entering a consideration and purchase process, i.e., unawareness. Active resistance is a decision made as the result of evaluation—up to and including the experience of owning and driving an EV. Thus, active resistance is understood to include what may be commonly understood to be “resistance” as well as the specific case of discontinuance. Among resisters is a group that has stubbornly constituted about one-fifth of all car-buyers across household surveys from 2014 to 2021 even in the face of increasing EV sales, charging infrastructure, and variety of EV makes and models. Who are the passive and active EV Resisters and why do they resist EVs? To what extent is their resistance based in personal choice, context, or institutional structure? What can incentivize or enable all households to engage in transitions to electrify light-duty transport? These questions are addressed via statistical modeling of data from past surveys as well as a new household survey conducted in fall 2023.
