[RahulNagaraj]

As per a new study, electric vehicle manufacturers in the USA are struggling to bring in more female buyers. The report shows that while the industry average for women car buyers is 41.2%, the average for vehicles with an electric powertrain is just 28%.



Among the top electric vehicle manufacturers in the USA, Tesla is the only EV brand faring well, with women buyers consisting of 33.1%. Other brands like Polestar, Lucid and Rivian seem to be struggling to maintain gender balance, with women buyers accounting for just 24.7%, 19.5% and 14.5%, respectively.

S&P Global Mobility's Chief Diversity Officer, Marc Bland, mentioned that the data gathered in the study is a cause for concern. He notes that women car buyers are more anxious about range and safety than men. Bland further added that EV brands will have to do a "lot more educating" in this aspect. He further mentioned that with more brands aiming for a zero-emissions range in the coming years, mainstream carmakers like Ford, GM & Volkswagen will need to come up with efficient ways to sustain their current gender diversity into the EV era.

However, the report also mentions that at this stage it is unclear if automakers have already begun addressing the gender demographics or not.

Source: S&P Global Mobility

Link to Team-BHP news

[RedTerrano]

Are we really living in a world, where everything has be about gender?


My (senior citizen) mother prefers my Wagon R over my Terrano, because the WagonR's tall boy design is easier on her knees. She finds Terrano's higher ground clearance painful during ingress/egress.

So should we say Nissan did not design a woman friendly car?

He notes that women car buyers are more anxious about range and safety than men.

I think this anxiety is rooted in common sense and has nothing to do with gender. Even I, as a male, would be concerned about range. As for the second aspect, Safety first is a motto for everyone.

I am really fed up of these so called "experts" and their deductions, where they cloak the root cause in some latest current thing excuse to appear "woke".

This actually reminds me of an old joke.
Two alleged "experts" are conducting a "study" on cockroaches.
They lay a cockroach on a table, and holler "walk!"
The cockroach scurries away, only to be recaptured.
The experts note down the results.
Then they break one of it's legs, lay it on the table and again holler "walk!"
Despite the missing appendage the cockroach still manages to scurry away, to be recaptured again.
New results noted, the experts continue breaking the legs and still successfully see the cockroach commute from A to B.
Finally they manage to break of all 6 legs and lay it on the table.
In unison, they holler walk! and observe their subject with bated breath.
Obviously, the cockroach is unable to move.

Their study over, the experts publish their report.
Their conclusion? Loosing all legs, makes a cockroach go deaf.

[SKC-auto]

Originally Posted by RedTerrano

.As for the second aspect, Safety first is a motto for everyone.

Not sure what kind of safety the study has mentioned. But there is a genuine safety concerns regarding EV usage which may be solved as EVs percentage rise.

In most cases, the chargers are located at a corner in a huge parking area, where the area is usually not well lit. Unlike refuelling an ICE car which happens in a well lit area where people keep moving.

Charging at such locations require people to park at a lonely corner, get out of their cars for initiating the charge and wait for 20-30mins. It will be impossible for women to recharge at such charging stations at odd hours.

Hope legislations as below along with moving charging locations to well lit areas usually near to the entrances of shopping malls, theatres etc help us in this aspect.

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/india...ved-women.html (MH to get 20% public parking spaces reserved for women)

[RedTerrano]

Originally Posted by SKC-auto

It will be impossible for women to recharge at such charging stations at odd hours.

Again how is this gender specific? Men would face the same problem no?
Since the report is mainly about US, here is an interesting graph about US numbers.
Contrary to popular belief, men face the brunt of crimes more than women.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/...ims-by-gender/

Like I said earlier, please let us not turn everything about gender.
Men will be just as scared as ladies, when it comes to charging stations in some dark corner.

[SKC-auto]

Originally Posted by RedTerrano

Again how is this gender specific? Men would face the same problem no?

It's not same, I can take a cab and go out at 2am, the cab driver can hit me on my face to rob me or some gang can mug me on my way, my wife will never take such a risk of travelling in a cab at 2am.

So saying men are involved in more violent crimes is wrong, when women just avoid coming out of their houses at odd hours.

The same is also may be true with charging EV, I did not read the report, but may be women are avoiding such scenarios and is a safety concern. Anyway, it's my personal opinion, you may disagree.

[daksh0510]

Originally Posted by RedTerrano

Again how is this gender specific? Men would face the same problem no?

I think the point here is that men would be willing to take the risk of parking the cars in a pitch black corner for charging, while women just tend to stay away.

On another note, this might as well be the reason that crimes against men are more common, as the criminals are unable to find women at odd hours.

[vellatechie]

Originally Posted by RedTerrano

Are we really living in a world, where everything has be about gender?
.
.
.
.
I think this anxiety is rooted in common sense and has nothing to do with gender.

The study says women are MORE anxious. It doesn't say men are not anxious or only women are anxious.

[Drivaholic@2727]

I guess there is range anxiety for everyone and is not limited to a specific gender. Of course no body wants to be stranded on a deaerted road in the middle of nowhere, and women are much more likely to be scared in this situation as compared to males. No gender difference here but women are more likely to stay in their comfort zones and not wander about in an EV with an uncertainty as to where it might break down or run out of charge. So until EV's become more relaible and have better range just like ICE vehicles women buyers will tend to stay away from EV's

[Jeroen]

Hold your horses guys!

The only reason car manufacturer are concerned about this gender gap is that they are missing out on a huge chunk of the market! So they want to understand why women buy fewer EVs than regular cars.

So they will need to find the causes and make some amends. Women do have other requirements on cars compared to men.

So although the term gender has been mentioned, it is really about market share in 50% of the worlds population. So nothing woke here, just good old fashioned capitalism trying to figure out how to flock more stuff to the masses.

Jeroen

[kinetic]

So many of the responses on this thread reveal just how disconnected this forum seems to be from the ground reality based on actual data presented in this study. Maybe this forum needs a little more diversity of opinion as well lol.

Whether anyone agrees with these reasons from a male point of view, female buyers are expressing their concerns by spending their money elsewhere, and that counts for a lot. Like Jeroen mentioned, its likely a combination of two things 1. A blind spot in marketing efforts that needs to be plugged, and 2. Digging into the actual safety (vehicle/personal?) and range concerns and finding innovations around it.

[SahilS]

Originally Posted by RedTerrano

Contrary to popular belief, men face the brunt of crimes more than women.

This is a very misleading statement in my opinion. Women do have a more chance 'per capita' of facing crime when they are at a place with higher possibility of crime.

For example, let's consider a big city where say around during late night hours(when more crimes happen), on an average 80,000 men and about 10,000 women go outside for few hours daily.
And on an average 60 men and 50 women face some sort of crime weekly.

Now we can't repeat your statement here that men face the brunt of crimes more than women during those hours. (60 out of 80,000 men and 50 out of 10,000 women)

It is like saying US police treats White people in a much worse manner than other races because majority of inmates in jails are Whites (without considering per capita)

[ThunderMurukku]

I believe most of the discussion here seems to miss this important point:

Men are more tech savvy than women, in general.

Today, I would consider EVs to still be an emerging tech in the world and with any technology that is very new, innovators & early adopters are most likely to be men rather than women (Except for those features/products that are developed only for women, obviously). Over time as it becomes more mainstream, the percentage of women consumers will go up and we will see better numbers in terms of equality.

I don't believe education and marketing this tech at women will have the desired impact . In this tech category, women mostly fall under the early & late laggards segments and this will take time. I'm sure that in 5 or 10 years, these numbers will look a lot better in terms of diversity.

As for S&P's study on this topic, this looks to me like they're looking to mooch off of the gender diversity train rather than do actual studies that make a difference.

[dragracer567]

Originally Posted by RedTerrano

Are we really living in a world, where everything has be about gender?

My (senior citizen) mother prefers my Wagon R over my Terrano, because the WagonR's tall boy design is easier on her knees. She finds Terrano's higher ground clearance painful during ingress/egress.

So should we say Nissan did not design a woman friendly car?

I think this anxiety is rooted in common sense and has nothing to do with gender. Even I, as a male, would be concerned about range. As for the second aspect, Safety first is a motto for everyone.

I am really fed up of these so called "experts" and their deductions, where they cloak the root cause in some latest current thing excuse to appear "woke".

Sorry to say but gender is an important denominator and women are an important interest group. You are worried that research these days accommodates for women with different mental and physical characteristics as a man when research for decades only accounted for men? Do you know that women are more likely to be misidentified if they have a heart attack as compared to men and hence are more likely to die from one? If we follow your suggestion and ignore gender, this is one among a multitude of research areas that affects the lives of women, whether you care for it, or not. There is nothing woke about it and I fail to understand why some people get so worked up on such studies, especially regarding women.

Regarding your mother's example, the same would be true of a senior citizen man as well, so the right conclusion would be "Nissan did not design a senior-citizen friendly car", even then you are talking about just your own example which could be an anomaly. The conclusion should take into account a multiple of data that is run through statistical tests and the results should to be statistically significant. This is also what is wrong about your cockroach example, you clearly don't know how the scientific community, peer review etc works (PS I am a scientist - a marine biologist).

Regarding this research, 41% and 28% is a huge difference that can't be explained by any other factor, other than gender. Anecdotally speaking, when it comes to cars, women tend to be more conservative and prefer to go for tested products - no woman wants to get stranded in the middle of the night because there is no charger station nearby, even in the west.

I am just going to leave this here:

[lina]

As someone who has driven an EV for 25k+ km in the last 18 months, here a few issues I feel keep women away from EVs:

1. Risk of getting stranded if you run out of battery.
2. Shady/dark locations of chargers on the highway.
3. Inconvenient and cumbersome charger guns and cables. Some of the charger guns and cables are extremely heavy and positioned very high. People shorter than 5'10" will find it difficult.
4. Planning/geeking out required - kind of a sexist statement but lets be honest here. Men are more likely to put up with BS under the garb of geeking out routes and plans. Women usually want things that just work.

However, almost all these issues will matter only if the car is driven out on the highway. I really dont think these points are valid in India as I dont think too many women drive on the highway in the first place. Here I would imagine women will be a major market over time as the city automatic car usually has a huge woman following.

[venkyhere]

There are many "study groups" , "survey groups" etc who are mainly NGO based or University based, who secure 'funds' from the industry. They need to justify the grants they get. Hence thousands of such 'studies' which are not worth the paper they are printed on, exist. My guess is that probably 10-15 out of 100 of such 'research groups' are doing worthy work, others are just gas groups.

This doesn't deserve a thread here.