Graph of the Day: Who drives electric cars?

EV Obsession

The Wall Street Journal (which I just railed on the other day for a horrible post about solar energy) has actually published a pretty interesting infographic on who drives electric cars. Granted, I saved myself the probable pain of reading the related article — but maybe it was actually a decent piece as well. If you read it, let me know.

The infographic, reposted below, highlights several interesting facts, which I’ll real quickly note here in text for those of you who prefer straight text:

• 100% electric and plug-in hybrid electric cars grew tremendously in the US in 2011, and then again in 2012. And they are going to far eclipse 2012 sales in 2013. 2010 sales = 345; 2011 sales = 17,735; 2012 sales = 52,835; 2013 = an even much higher number.
• Over 30% of 2013 US electric car and plug-in hybrid sales have occurred in San Francisco and Los Angeles.
• About 77% of new Leaf and Volt owners have household incomes over $100,000 per year. That compares to about 33% of all new-car buyers in 2012.
• Plug-in car owners drive these cars less than average Americans drive — about 9,000 miles vs 13,500 miles. (Notably, this research didn’t include Tesla Model S owners.)
• Volt owners drive their Volts an average of 41 miles a day, while Leaf owners drive their Leafs an average of 30 miles a day.
• The most popular time for charging EVs is in the hours just after midnight, thanks to surplus electricity supply and thus lower electricity rates (or no charge at all) in those hours.

Here’s the full infographic: