Electric Car Referrals (Survey Results)

October 11th, 2014 by Zachary Shahan

About a month ago, I got curious about how many of our electric-car-owning readers had convinced others to go electric, so I decided to put together a short survey on the matter. Aside from the simple matter of how many people you had converted, I also asked about which electric cars you drive and which your friends, family members, or co-workers bought. The results are quite interesting:

Thoughts

I was actually surprised to see that ~50% of respondents had contributed to someone they know getting an electric car. That’s impressive, imho. And five respondents got 10+ people to go electric! (I’m guessing some of them are Nissan LEAF or Tesla salespeople? Or they referred a lot of people to this article. )

It was also interesting that the percentage of new owners who went for a Tesla Model S or Chevy Volt was considerably higher than the percentage of original owners who owned those vehicles, while the opposite was true for the Nissan LEAF. I’m guessing that some of the friends or family members of Nissan LEAF owners were able to go for the higher-priced Tesla Model S, while others were more “secondary adopters” than truly “early adopters” and went with the Volt because they were more concerned with have a long range or gasoline backup. (Though, I assume that some LEAF haters might have other ideas why that shift occurred.)

Other than those three dominant EVs, the spread was very diverse (like the market) and no other models had very notable numbers. However, it was interesting to see that one of the new EV owners was actually one of the few to get the VW XL1, and one of them also got the brand new Kia Soul EV. Also, it’s pretty cool that 5 of our readers own a Tesla Roadster!

As far as the “Other” responses, Q2 had a couple of Th!nk City cars, a few conversion, a Zero motorcycle, and a Lv Liang hybrid electric scooter.

Survey Notes

One limitation of this short survey is that I imagine those who had actually gotten others to buy or lease an electric car were more likely to respond, but hopefully there wasn’t too much bias in that regard.

I didn’t promote the survey beyond CleanTechnica at all, as I was really mostly curious about the story of our readers.

Unfortunately, while I can look at all of the answers from each respondent myself, there’s no aggregate data available on which cars friends/family/co-workers of Chevy Volt owners, Nissan LEAF owners, Tesla Model S owners, etc. bought.

If you didn’t initially answer the survey but own or lease an electric car, feel free to complete it now! I might use the results again in the future.

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Tags: BMW, bmw activeE, BMW i3, chevy spark ev, Chevy Volt, cleantechnica surveys, daimler, Fiat, Fiat 500E, Ford, Ford C-MAX Energi, ford focus electric, Ford Fusion Energi, GM, Honda, Honda Accord, honda accord phev, Honda Fit, honda fit ev, kia, Kia Soul EV, Mitsubishi, mitsubishi i, Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV, Nissan, Nissan Leaf, Opel Ampera, renault, renault fluence ze, renault zoe, smart, Smart Electric Drive, Tesla, Tesla Model S, Tesla Roadster, Toyota, toyota prius PHEV, Toyota RAV4 EV, vw, VW XL1

About the Author

Zachary Shahan spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as the director/chief editor. Otherwise, he's probably enthusiastically fulfilling his duties as the director/editor of Solar Love, EV Obsession, Planetsave, or Bikocity. Zach is recognized globally as a solar energy, electric car, and wind energy expert. If you would like him to speak at a related conference or event, connect with him via social media. You can connect with Zach on any popular social networking site you like. Links to all of his main social media profiles are on ZacharyShahan.com.

Ilaniam

Hi Zach, I think it’s worth mentioning that a likely reason the percentage of EVs are skewed in favor of the Leaf, Model S and Volt is that those cars are available nationwide. In contrast, cars like the RAV-4, Honda Fit, Kya Soul EV are only available in select states (mostly California)
- http://zacharyshahan.com/ Zachary Shahan
  
  Thanks. I actually meant to mention that, but then forgot. The basic point is that GM, Nissan, and Tesla are trying to sell those cars. They are available nationwide, but they are also generally the best available cars at their respective price points and categories.
Bob_Wallace

I’ve seen a number of low mileage used Leafs for sale around $12k.

My credit union is offering 1.75%, 48 months used car loans. With a $2k down payment that would mean a $215 monthly payment.

If a Leaf would work you might find the gas and maintenance savings might cover most of the cost.

If you drive 13,000 miles a year in a 24 MPG car and buy gas for $3.25/gallon you’re paying almost $150 for gas each month.
- gopher652003
  
  A leaf *might* work, but sadly even 12000 dollars is too much for us at the moment. We’re poor:P.
  
  EDIT: We pay about 100 to 150 a month in gas, yeah. When our current car (one of the worst cars I’ve had the pleasure of being in, a 2008 Pontiac Wave) we’ll probably be looking at a used electric, unless we’re out of school at that point. Then maybe a new electric:).
  
  EDIT #2: Plus we pay 60 bucks a month for a parking stall, which includes the plug in, so we wouldn’t be paying any more for power than we are now. Only a 110V, but for our needs that would usually be enough. If we want to go out of town we’d probably borrow my mother-in-law’s RAV4. Or even rent a car. It’s not that expensive to rent for a couple days.
  - mortisier
    
    Lease, get the tax credit up front. Make them pay you for the trade in on the Pontiac. Most dealers will give at least $1000 in a nice gesture trade in value. Fight for every penny and you can get into a Leaf for an additional $1000 down and just under $200.00 YOU CAN DO IT !!!!!
http://neilblanchard.blogspot.com/ Neil Blanchard

My spouse and I just signed a lease on a 2015 Leaf – this is the 3rd Leaf in our family and the 5th EV – the other 2 are i MiEV’s.
- http://zacharyshahan.com/ Zachary Shahan
  
  That’s awesome. We need to get some content rolling from you…

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