Costs of plug-in cars key to broad consumer acceptance

DETROIT, Mich.

…The relationship between cost and purchase probabilities was clearly indicated by the proportions who said there was zero chance of buying or 100 percent chance of buying at the three different cost premiums presented in the survey.

“Indeed, 56 percent of all consumers responded that there was no chance that they would buy a PHEV at the top premium,” Curtin said. “The proportion indicating a zero probability of purchase moves from nearly one-in-four at $2,500, to one in three at $5,000, to more than one in two at an added cost of $10,000. At the other extreme, those who said they were 100 percent certain that they would buy a PHEV reached a high of just 10 percent for the lowest added cost and fell to just 1 percent for the highest added cost.”

It should be no surprise that vehicle purchases, typically the second largest purchase households make, would be very sensitive to price, Curtin says. But although consumer acceptance of PHEVs was not determined solely by cost issues, the role of environmental considerations played a smaller role in consumer attitudes about PHEVs than had been anticipated.

University of Michigan