An electric car – with a side of solar panels

Marrying electric cars with solar panels is a good way of enticing people into buying electric cars, new research shows. Joint efforts from automakers and green energy providers could expand interest in electric cars, Ingram writes.

|
Susan Montoya Bryan/AP/File
Solar panels are shown in a photovoltaic array in Albuquerque, N.M. New research suggests that interest in full electric vehicles grows when paired with a green electricity program.

In our experience, owners of electric vehicles are also rather keen on green energy. Where appropriate, many fit solar panels to supply some of their energy needs, and others use green energy tariffs and similar.

As it turns out, marrying the two is a good way of enticing people into electric cars--buying cars in the knowledge they're impacting the environment as little as possible.

A researcher at Simon Fraser University in Canada surveyed 1,500 American auto consumers to discover their thoughts on electric vehicles.

Regardless of the type of vehicle a respondent had recently bought--be it pure electric, hybrid, or a conventional car--interest in full electric vehicles grew when paired with a green electricity program. 

“For the conventional car buyers," says researcher Jonn Axsen, "once we offered green electricity with plug-in vehicles it increased their interest by 23 per cent, which is significant.” For hybrid and full electric car buyers, interest was even higher.

Conveniently, a report by Navigant Research confirms it--stating that electric vehicle owners and buyers pay much more attention to the energy powering their vehicles, preferring clean power such as solar.

The report, aimed at solar companies, details how the solar industry can benefit from teaming up with automobile companys--with their greater advertising budgets--to aim green energy at customers to go with their electric vehicles. Naturally, the benefit is also there for the automakers themselves, whose electric cars are an easier sell with some green energy to power them.

"Together," says the report's abstract, "these two industries can provide a complete solution that enables emissions-free driving as well as clean, low-cost electricity."

Axsen agrees in his own report, saying "There are many things that have to be done to nurture widespread interest in PEVs. This survey gives some stimulus to automakers and utilities to think about synergies in terms of sales. Currently, they’re working separately."

If you have $1,500 handy you can read the full Navigant Research report here. You can also read Jonn Axsen's full report (in PDF format) and view a video abstract here.

The latter in particular is very interesting, as much for its details on the demographics of electric car owners--albeit demographics that might have shifted significantly in the year or so since the data was collected.

In summary thought, it needs joint efforts from automakers and green energy providers to expand interest in electric vehicles--in addition to the dozens of other factors that attract certain customers to electric ownership.

[Hat tip: Brian Henderson]

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to An electric car – with a side of solar panels
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Business/In-Gear/2013/0402/An-electric-car-with-a-side-of-solar-panels
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe