A new survey from Autolist shows how consumers feel about purchasing electric vehicles. Amongst the top concerns were price, range, and charging station accessibility. In an interview with Yahoo Finance Live, Autolist Editor-in-Chief David Undercoffler explains that while price is the top concern for consumers, the number of people who are concerned about price is decreasing, down to 42% from last year's 49%.

Video Transcript

AKIKO FUJITA: Joining us now is David Undercoffer, the Editor-in-Chief of Autolist. David, good to talk to you today. You know, despite all the talk about maybe a slowdown in EVs, if you look at the last quarter, there were record sales, right? I mean, up more than 50% year-on-year. We're talking about roughly 8% of the market. The new car sales in the market are made up of EVs. So my question to you is, how much of that remaining 90%-plus is actually in pay-- in play? How many drivers are actually still considering buying EVs?

DAVID UNDERCOFFER: Oh, that's a good question. I would imagine that it's always tough to predict the future. But EVs are certainly very quickly addressing many of the consumer issues that they have with it. So we're seeing concerns about affordability decrease. We're seeing concerns about range decrease, and then the charging infrastructure. So, you know, it's always difficult to predict when full adoption will happen. But I don't want to call them inevitable, but many consumers are really starting to think that this is a type of vehicle that's going to fit into their lifestyle.

AKIKO FUJITA: So let's talk about those two key things you point out. It's the price and then there's the range. What's the bigger hurdle for those who are considering potentially looking into EVs right now?

DAVID UNDERCOFFER: So it's always been price. We've been running this survey annually since 2019. We took 2020 off because of the pandemic. But we've always seen the top three concerns. And those are, in order, price, concerns about range, and then where people are going to charge them. However, the number of people concerned about price is decreasing.

That is becoming less of a concern in the years we've been doing this survey. It dropped from, let's see, it was 42% of respondents this year. So that was a concern. Last year, it was 49%. And that's just in a year. So we are definitely seeing that ease considerably in a nice timeline.

AKIKO FUJITA: On the pricing, how much of that ease has to do with the incentives that have taken shape? And we talk a lot about the federal incentives roughly $7,500 for new cars. But you add the state incentives depending on where you live, that's got to really the price of an EV right off the top, right?

DAVID UNDERCOFFER: It can. And it certainly makes it certainly more attractive. I will say it's a bit of a mixed bag right now. The Inflation Reduction Act changed which vehicles were eligible for the full federal tax rebate. And so some vehicles are now on that list that were not previously. But it also took some other brands off. And it sort of depended on twofold, you know, where the vehicle was manufactured and where the battery is sourcing its materials.

So I know Hyundai and Kia are out with a great lineup of plug-in hybrid and then fully electric vehicles. Most of those vehicles are now ineligible for the short term if you buy it. There are some loopholes there for leasing. But so there was you know, it was a mixed bag as far as which vehicles became more affordable. But, yeah, certainly, you know, I'm from California. You know, you can take-- you're eligible in terms of your income and the vehicle is eligible, it can knock $10,000 off the price of one of these EVs. And that's pretty significant.

AKIKO FUJITA: David, one of the things that stood out to me in your study, where you say resistance to EVs is becoming even more entrenched, particularly around low-income shoppers. What's happening there? Because so much of the discussion around EVs has been the inequality, about the affordability, and that it is the higher-end consumers who have charging networks around them that have benefited the most.

DAVID UNDERCOFFER: Yeah. That's a great point. And we definitely saw that most acutely in this survey. I think it's twofold. For one, EVs have always been sort of portrayed as it's for early adopters or Tesla sort of set the narrative that they are these aspirational pretty expensive vehicles. It has taken a while for EVs. They're so new still that there aren't many of them or there's the perception that there aren't many of them on the used market, which would then bring prices down.

So, and then there's also sort of an issue with trucks. Truck is a body style that Americans love. Only now are we seeing electric trucks. And so it's going to take some time before those trucks start entering into the used market that may drive down prices. So right now, it's really-- it is-- EVs are seen as sort of this unattainable type of transportation for low-income buyers. And it's not just a product, like you said, it's access to charging infrastructure. You know, in our survey, we found that a number of lower-income shoppers could not identify or did not notice or know of charging infrastructure in their community. And that's certainly a big hurdle, because, you know, if we want these to be adopted nationwide, it cannot just be something for higher-income communities.

AKIKO FUJITA: Finally, David, we've been talking a lot about Tesla opening up their charging network and whether that in fact sets the standard. The NACS, which Tesla has, versus the CCS, does it ultimately matter which standard there is? Because at the end of the day, there's just not enough chargers out there, right?

DAVID UNDERCOFFER: True. There's certainly not enough chargers. I don't know if it-- it'd be better to ask an engineer what the difference between the specific charging standard. I'm just-- we're in a sort of VHS versus Betamax moment. And as long as they just pick one and the automakers adopt that, I think it will make things easier for consumers. They don't have that issue of, OK, I'm driving this EV, but I'm pulling into this super charging station. Is my EV going to be able to plug into the Tesla network?

I will say, you know, Tesla, they've certainly done a great job, whether it's 18,000 super charging stations. And not only are there's certainly a large number of them, but they're also reliable. I think if you talk to people who own EVs that are not Tesla's and they're using other charging networks, there's a lot of pain points in those charging networks themselves. So to adopt Tesla's standard and to give other brands access to the super charging is really going to make it a lot easier for consumers.

AKIKO FUJITA: Yeah. Charging reliability, a big key point for a lot of drivers out there. David Undercofler, the Editor-in-Chief of Autolist, it's good to talk to you today. Appreciate the time.

DAVID UNDERCOFFER: Likewise. Thank you.