Influence of Climate Change on High School Students' Attitudes Towards Electric Vehicles

Abstract

Electric vehicles are gaining interest due to their increasing affordability, improved design, and longer range. Generation Z buyers currently comprise a small percentage of new electric vehicle purchases, but will dominate as the largest consumer group in the automotive industry during the next 10-20 years. To test the level of interest in electric vehicles by the high school subset of Generation Z, 56 anonymous individuals were surveyed to solicit their opinions. The survey asked for each participant's opinion on climate change and electric vehicles in an attempt to find a correlation between a person's attitude towards climate change and that person's interest in electric vehicles. I hypothesized there would be a positive correlation between a student's view on climate change and their perception of electric vehicles. Using a Pearson's correlation study, a positive, but weak, correlation was found between the two topics. Based on the data's p value, the correlation was determined to be statistically insignificant, rejecting my original hypothesis. Through an exploratory data analysis of the survey results, it was found that most high school students are aware of climate change, but their awareness alone may not influence their lifestyle choices to lessen the problem. I found that the respondents were more concerned about the price of electric vehicles than their environmental benefits. Despite observing a weak correlation, this study indicated that if price were not a factor, purchasing an electric vehicle would be more strongly considered by those who care about climate change than those who do not.