New Study Shows EV and Hybrid Owners are Distinct

Tesla Plugged In (Credit: © Tesla)

Quite a number of people have made the assumption that all hybrid and electric vehicle (EV) owners wear Birkenstocks, drink overpriced coffee, and look the other way when passing a Walmart. Now a new study that was conducted by Experian Automotive is dispelling those myths, proving that there are some distinctions between hybrid and EV owners, even if those distinctions might seem very slight.

For example, people who own EVs tend to be better off financially than hybrid vehicle owners, plus they tend to be younger. People who own EVs also on average have higher credit scores, carry higher loan payments and can hold their breath underwater longer (or at least, that’s to be assumed based on other data points from the study).

Just how much younger are EV owners? About 55 percent of hybrid owners are younger than 56, while about 74 percent of EV owners fall into that same age range. When it comes to loan payment, the average EV monthly loan payment was found to be $549, while for hybrid vehicles it was $467.

Not surprisingly, owners of the Tesla Model S were outliers in the study. About 46 percent of people who purchased the fully-electric luxury sedan did so with cash, while 54 percent took out loans and less than 1 percent leased the car. This bucked the trend in the study, where 87 percent of EV owners leased their vehicle.

Of course, hybrid vehicles still far outnumber EVs, which are newer to the market. In fact, Experian found that almost 98 percent of all alternative energy vehicles on American roads today are hybrids.