20 % of Americans are willing to buy electric cars Electric cars continue to heat up in the United States

The AAA's first survey of Americans 'willingness to buy electric cars showed that 20 per cent of Americans are willing to buy electric cars, compared with 15 per cent in 2017.

That may be good news for Tesla, General Motors and Nissan. Tesla is now stepping up production of the first mass-market electric model 3; GM introduced the mid-priced long range electric car Chevrolet Bolt; Nissan has introduced a new leaf with longer range.

More and more Americans are considering electric cars, mainly because mileage anxiety is waning. About 58 per cent of respondents in this year's survey said they would not buy an electric car because of concerns about mileage, compared with 68 per cent in 2017. Greg Branon, AAA's director of automotive engineering, says mileage is no longer as worrying as it used to be. Of the 30 million road rescue calls AAA receives each year, very few drivers call for help because the battery is dead. Electric car owners are well aware of their mileage and plan their trips accordingly, so there is generally no mid-stream power failure.

Electric cars are still a relatively small sector. Sales of pure electric vehicles in 2017 were about 104,000 vehicles, up 24 % from a year earlier, according to HybridCars.com, but the market share remained below 1 %. One of the reasons is that prices are too high. For example, the Tesla Model 3 starts at $35,000(approximately RMB 222,600). Although the price is about half of the starting price of its two luxury cars, it is still high, and the upgraded Model3 price can reach 50,000 US dollars(about 318,100 yuan) or more.

Federal and local tax credits can partly offset the price of electric cars. Moreover, as gasoline prices rise, more people may buy electric cars. The average price of gasoline in the United States last week reached its lowest level since November 2014, according to consumer information app GasBuddy. According to AAA, the average price of gasoline on the 7th was 2.81 US dollars(about 17.87 yuan), an increase of 46 cents(about 2.93 yuan) year-on-year.

Branon says electric vehicles are cheaper to maintain because they don't need to change oil and have fewer parts than conventional engines. This is another key reason some consumers are considering buying electric cars. However, for many people, the charging time is still too long. In the AAA survey, 68 percent of respondents said the 30-minute or so recharge time was reasonable.

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