Consumer demand for electric vehicles is being tempered by anti-green Trump administration policies, but the question is by how much.

Two recent surveys provide significantly different readings on the EV demand pulse. 

While a J.D. Power poll found 24% of consumers in the market for a new car are very likely to consider a pure EV, a AAA survey found just 16% are very likely or likely to consider EVs.

Respondents to AAA’s poll who are unlikely or very unlikely to go electric jumped from 51% to 63%, its highest level in three years.

The disparity could be in part because AAA conducted its survey during one week in March shortly after the initial U.S. trade tariffs were announced, whereas J.D. Power fielded its poll during the must wider period of January through April.

The two surveys also found slightly different values consumers are placing on adoption obstacles. J.D. Power’s saw purchase price and ownership cost concerns fall as public charging concerns stayed at the top, while AAA’s found cost considerations to be the top two barriers. 

Shifting sentiments likely result from federal policy moving from pro-electric under the Joe Biden administration to the opposite under President Donald Trump, whose administration has pulled funding to states for charger development and is pursuing the end of EV purchase tax credits and manufacturing incentives.

Many automakers had already been refocusing on more hybrid vehicle production before the fall elections, though they haven’t abandoned electric. Ford, for example, recently told the Detroit Free Press that it plans to keep developing its EV business.

Still, EV-dampening moves in the U.S. capital appear to be sewing uncertainty among consumers. AAA found that those believing most U.S. cars will be electric in the coming 10 years has fallen from 40% in 2022 to 23% this year. And those interested in going electric to secure a federal tax credit fell from 60% last year to 39%.

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