Recent research from Miles Partnership and Longwoods International on electric vehicle travel reports that 38 percent of U.S. adult travelers have used an electric vehicle to travel on a trip.
Of those, 21 percent said they used an electric vehicle on an overnight trip of at least 50 miles away from home.
Travelers note that primary benefits for using an electric vehicle on a trip include being more environmentally friendly, personal financial benefits and improved car services. Eleven percent say they don’t see any significant benefits.
Challenges of using electric vehicles on a trip include difficulties in finding charging stations, lengthy charging times, limited driving range and wait times at charging stations.
More than three-quarters of travelers say it is important that travel destinations have a wide range of EV charging stations that are easy to access and use. Forty percent say charging stations that are free or inexpensive would increase the likelihood to visit a destination in an electric vehicle. Nearly 40 percent say charging stations that are convenient would increase usage on trips.
The number of EV charging stations available up and down the Outer Banks, and along the N.C. 168/U.S. 158 and U.S. 64 corridors on the mainland, continues to grow at public locations, including shopping centers, gas stations, restaurants, and popular attractions.
Hotels, motels and rental homes are also adding more charging stations, and most vacation rental companies’ have EV stations as a filter on their property search pages.
Story courtesy Visit NC NewsLink, a weekly e-newsletter from the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina. NewsLink provides information to nearly 4,800 tourism industry leaders, media and government representatives across the state. It distributes valuable information on Visit NC’s marketing and promotional efforts, tourism-related research, state, national and international trends, media leads, updates on conferences and events, and more.