Electric vehicle myths pose ‘significant challenge' to world's transition to sustainable transport options

West Australian

3 days ago

Misinformation about electric vehicles, from how likely they are to burst into flames to their green credentials, is rife — even among those who own them.
University of Queensland-led research suggests more people believe misinformation about EVs than disagree with it, posing a 'significant challenge' to the world's transition to more sustainable transport options.
When presented with misleading statements, people were more inclined to agree than disagree that EVs were at a higher risk of catching fire than petrol cars, that the batteries were designed to be non-upgradeable and that the cars do not produce emissions savings.
The research, published in Nature Energy and released late Monday, is based on surveys in Australia, the US, Germany and Australia.
UQ business school's Chris Bretter said the extent to which people would accept misinformation about EVs, even if they drove one, was 'concerning'.
'The misinformation statements we tested included that EVs are more likely to catch fire than petrol cars, do not produce emission savings and emit electromagnetic fields that damage health. . . all claims which are demonstrably false,' Dr Bretter said.
'We know this sort of false information is out there and circulating, but the scale of acceptance is concerning and poses a significant challenge to the global transition to more sustainable transport.
'The fact that even EV owners were more likely than not to agree with misinformation underscores just how embedded it's become in society.'
EV cars accounted for about 20 per cent of all vehicles sold globally last year. In Australia, where EV sales have been more sluggish than Europe, sales of electric and plug-in hybrid cars were up 14 per cent for the year.
Even the polarising nature of Tesla boss Elon Musk — and his association with the Donald Trump administration in the US — could not stop a 10.4 per cent spike in Australian EV car sales last month, fuelled in part by the arrival of a new Tesla model. That followed a global drop in Tesla sales attributed in part to Mr Musk's unpopularity.
New Australian vehicle efficiency standards are expected to help further drive sales.
Professor Matthew Hornsey said a person's level of education did not effect how likely they were to agree with false statements about EVs.
However, their willingness to embrace conspiracy theories did. Some participants had unfounded concerns about the risk of EVs to health and the environment and believed there was a 'secret agenda' to exaggerate their benefits.
'The biggest predictor of whether a person accepted misinformation statements was actually conspiracy mentality — a tendency to believe conspiracies occur and seeing the world through a lens of corruption and secret agendas,' he said.
'This same outlook has also been associated with opposition to science-backed technologies like vaccinations and wind farms.
'The results show public understanding of EVs has been distorted by an information landscape shaped by myths, selective framing and speculative reasoning.'
The UQ researchers found that people given either a fact sheet on EVs or a chance to 'talk' to AI tool ChatGPT were less likely to believe EV misinformation afterwards.