2013-08-10

Are electric cars still a 'woman's car'?

At the turn of the century most cars were electric. 15,000 Baker Electrics were sold when it was in production. It outsold the Ford Model T during its production. Henry Ford's own wife refused to own a Model T, she had and EV. I'll say again, it outsold the Model T. Thing was, car companies made their electric cars to appeal to women drivers. Sadly, conventional wisdom of the time was that cars were too complicated to be operated by women. In reality crank start piston motors and steam powered vehicles (train engines with rubber wheels and a steering wheel) actually were physically demanding, messy, dangerous, and frightening for _any_ human to use. Looking at EV demographics over the years, in both marketing and actual customers, there is a definite female buyer trend. Trucks, 'traditionally male', were they last to get Hybrid models and last to get full EV modes (and have yet to get full EV). The Tesla Roadster would seem to be in contrast to this due to the whole macho supercar thing. While not doing anything to excluding females, Tesla marketing seems to have been meant for male buyers. But, still, my wife was totally opposed to the idea of owning an electric vehicle until she saw a Tesla Roadster. "THAT'S a car I wanna drive!" she said. The car she saw was owned and operated by a female. Infact, every Tesla Roadster owner I've ever corresponded with has been female. In ads for EVs where they show real drivers taking about their cars, seems to be more females than males. I can't image the company didn't notice that about their own adds; and approved the female to male ratio. So I'm left to wonder, are EVs still 'women cars'? Please post your opinions.