Gas prices remain painfully high across the country thanks to the ongoing war with Iran, and diesel prices hit record highs of over $6 a gallon this week. While there are a variety of alternative fuels available for the dedicated, the most practical option for most people remains switching to an EV. And according to a new study from Here Technologies and SBD Automotive, more Americans are thinking about doing exactly that.
The two companies conduct this study annually, looking at how fast the EV market is growing in different countries, where there’s room for more growth, and what obstacles remain to increased EV adoption. The results are based partly on consumer surveys, and for the 2026 edition, 56% of U.S. drivers surveyed said that high gas prices had raised their interest in EVs.
The study also showed that another perennial deterrent to EV interest—availability of public charging stations—is also becoming less of an issue. Of the drivers surveyed, 47% believed there was a reasonable number of public chargers, up from 28% in 2025. And 85% of current EV owners agreed that current infrastructure was adequate, which makes sense, given that people who live with an EV usually realize that home charging is the way to go. An equivalent solution for apartment dwellers remains elusive, but being able to plug in at night without having to make a dedicated trip is a game changer.
Range anxiety is typically a common issue in surveys like this, but here the main factor keeping people from considering an EV was price, with two in five drivers surveyed saying that EVs are too expensive. That explains why Ford and Slate are betting on cheap electric pickups. Ford believes it can sell 100,000 Fathom pickups in the first year of production, a total that took the discontinued F-150 Lightning five years to reach.
Once they’ve bought an EV, people generally don’t go back to internal combustion, the study found. The majority of EV owners (77%) said they’d likely replace their EV with another one. That’s in line with previous surveys, but the real question is how many of the households surveyed also have a gasoline car, and if so, how usage of the two breaks down.
New EV sales have cratered since the Trump Administration gutted incentives, charging infrastructure programs, and emissions rules. But used EV sales have remained a bright spot, and if gas prices remain high, the relatively small number of used cars may not be enough to satisfy demand, forcing people to take a second look at new EVs. Republicans might hate EVs, but the war they started could very well revive EV sales.
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