Pollster: Minnesotans Expect Slow Adoption of Electric Vehicles

(KNSI) – Minnesotans of all political stripes are in agreement on electric vehicle adoption, or the lack thereof.

A poll conducted in the spring by Lincoln Partner Strategies shows voters from the center, left, and right want the government to pump the brakes on forcing battery-powered cars on consumers. Founder and President Stefan Hankin talked Wednesday with KNSI about the results.

He says, “This is not unanimous, but we’re talking strong majorities here of Minnesotans are not looking for the state to come down with a ban on gas vehicles or for saying you know movement towards specific types of gas. Or the fuel has to be 100% agriculturally based.”

Many respondents said the market is already moving towards electrification on its own. The poll contacted 600 registered voters.

Hankin says respondents don’t believe electric vehicle adoption should be a government priority. “I think what people don’t want to have the feeling is that the government is telling them what to buy and what to do. Just 14% of registered voters said that we need to do whatever we can to get gas cars off the street,” he notes.

Only 26% of Democrats agreed with the idea. Most people say it will be years before their car needs to be replaced. The second-most common objection to an electric vehicle was cost.

The question of who, or what is driving automakers towards electric vehicle production is a complicated one. California is the largest market for new sales because of its huge population and lack of mass transit options in some of its biggest cities, like Los Angeles. The state is banning gas-powered vehicles by 2035.

Carmakers generally adopt California’s stringent standards for all of their new vehicles produced nationwide. It is expensive to build a range of options for each make and model that are compliant in some showrooms and not in others.

The Lincoln Partner Strategies poll results are here.

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