The number of Americans who believe electric vehicles are better for the environment than cars that run on fossil fuels has dipped 5% in the past two years, according to a new poll conducted by Ipsos and first reported by NPR on Monday. And while the new polling doesn’t explain, why we can take some educated guesses.
Just 58% of Americans believe EVs are better for the environment, according to this latest polling, down from 63% of Americans back in 2022. But the most interesting aspect of this new data is that while beliefs from those who are considering buying an EV have remained constant, the beliefs of those who don’t want to buy an EV have changed beyond the margin of error for the poll.
Among Americans who are considering the purchase of an electric vehicle, 82% believe EVs are better for the environment—a number that was the same in 2022 and 2023. But among those who aren’t considering the purchase of an EV, the numbers have declined considerably. It was 38% in 2022, 31% in 2023, and 30% in this latest poll for 2024.
As NPR points out, there are a number of trade-offs when it comes to electric vehicles, but by most measures, electric vehicles really are better for the environment. But that hasn’t stopped a big push in conservative media to paint EVs as terrible for the planet. One example is a New York Post article from March 2024 with the headline “Electric vehicles release more toxic emissions, are worse for the environment than gas-powered cars: study.”
In reality, that Post article was misleading because it cited a study that only looked at tire and brake emissions, not major contributors to climate change like greenhouse emissions. The study demonstrated that tires from electric vehicles could emit plastic particulates into the air because EVs tend to be heavier than traditional cars. And that’s certainly something worth considering when it comes to pollution. But the New York Post clearly wasn’t being intellectually honest with its headline, knowing full well that any average reader would assume the “emissions” included things like greenhouse emissions.
That article was even cited by podcaster Joe Rogan during an episode of his podcast to talk about how electric vehicles may as well be ignored for their environmental benefits. And that brings us to the very influential people who are likely behind this shift in public opinion, especially among those who aren’t interested in buying an EV to begin with.
Guys like Rogan and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump have very loud megaphones to denigrate electric vehicles. And while Trump has slightly softened his language around EVs, only as a nod to his buddy Elon Musk, even the billionaire Tesla CEO has seen a shift in his language, moving closer to Trump, who has previously called climate change a hoax invented by China.
“If we were to stop using oil and gas right now, we would all be starving and the economy would collapse,” Musk said during an X Spaces chat with Trump in August. “We do over time want to move to a sustainable energy economy because eventually, you do run out of oil and gas.”
Musk went on to claim that “we still have quite a bit of time” and “we don’t need to rush” in a transition away from fossil fuels.
The problem, of course, is that if people really believe that there’s no environmental benefit to buying electric vehicles, people will top buying electric vehicles. And that would seem to be a problem for the CEO of a company that makes electric vehicles. Thankfully for Musk, that opinion seems to only be growing among people who weren’t going to buy EVs in the first place. But if he and his right-wing buddies keep feeding that narrative, who knows how public opinion might shift over the next two years.
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