AUSTIN – According to a national poll of more than 500 adults in the United States by online survey and research company QuestionPro, 70 percent of consumers are worried about future disruptions to the fuel supply chain in the wake of the Colonial Pipeline hack, and 35 percent of them are likely to buy an electric vehicle (EV) as a result.

The crisis is spurring a significant number of consumers to consider an EV for their next vehicle and giving EV manufacturers an unexpected competitive advantage.

The survey was conducted on May 13, a time of significant disruption and fuel shortage up and down the East Coast. Nearly every respondent (85 percent) was aware of the fuel shortage, although only 33 percent said they had been impacted personally by it. Regardless, 22 percent say they are “likely”, and 13 percent say they are “very likely”, to consider purchasing an EV as a result of the disruption.

“When you own an EV, your gas station is your house and the pumps never run dry,” said Dan Fleetwood, President of Research & Insights at QuestionPro. “The crisis is spurring a significant number of consumers to consider an EV for their next vehicle and giving EV manufacturers an unexpected competitive advantage.”

The survey of U.S. consumers was fielded May 13, 2021 and has a margin of error of +/- 3 percent. The survey was conducted using technology and multi-method behavioral fraud detection to verify respondents, including 80+ different security variables which accomplish the following: detection and rejection of suspicious IP addresses; digital fingerprinting; Captcha bot detection; event streaming and analysis, copy paste detection and translation of text detection. Mouse movements on desktops were also tracked.