Quantifying real and perceived barriers to EV adoption in rural Michigan

We survey a representative sample of ∼1000 rural Michigan residents to understand their constraints and attitudes around electric vehicle (EV) adoption and find that only 5% of respondents would choose a battery EV (BEV) as their next vehicle, a smaller number than is found in national surveys. Rural residents face real constraints to adopting EVs. However, their attitudes also correlate with their interest in EVs and they can be misinformed: 42% of respondents think they cannot meet their driving needs by a level 2 home charger while we estimate 75% of those respondents could; 30% of respondents think there is no public charger near their home while we estimate there is a public fast charger within 5 miles for 49% of these respondents; and 35% prefer an internal combustion engine vehicle because of cost, while we estimate a suitable BEV exists within their reported budget for 65% of these respondents. In general, there is room for information interventions that reduce inconsistent perceptions around BEVs. We find that respondents may be falsely pessimistic about BEV feasibility (56% of all respondents). A smaller percentage of respondents are also falsely optimistic (15% of all respondents).