Bob Dykes speaks in the gravelly drawl you’d expect of a man who grew up in Wyoming and owns an oil-and-gas company. He’s 69 years old, calls himself a political independent and is agnostic about global warming. He’s also about to buy his first all-electric vehicle. Not one from Elon Musk, however. “ Tesla to me is a yuppie vehicle,” he says.
The 1,000-horsepower beast he preordered from General Motors is the new electric Hummer. It will be the third Hummer Mr. Dykes, whose family-owned company operates in 14 states, has owned and, at $112,595, the most expensive. He says what sold him were the ads. GM bought a spot featuring basketball superstar LeBron James in this year’s Super Bowl.
Hundreds of thousands of consumers have preordered either the Hummer EV, the electric pickup truck from U.S. startup Rivian or Tesla’s Cybertruck. More have expressed interest in electric SUVs such as the Toyota bZ4X and Mercedes-Benz EQB, and electric versions of pickups such as the Ford F-150 and Chevy Silverado, a close relative of the Hummer.
These vehicles are advertised with promises of long battery range, high towing capacity, all the extras typical of midrange luxury vehicles—and hardly a mention of their eco-friendly bona fides. If previous electric autos were marketed to people concerned about climate change, these are pitched to people more concerned about surviving its aftermath. Ads for these vehicles, showing the great outdoors and gritty downtowns in equal measure, suggest that even if oceans rise and forests burn, you’ll be cruising to your bugout cabin on nothing but sunlight and self-satisfaction.
These aren’t your California cousin’s EVs. In fact, a growing number of economists, sociologists and psychologists say they could turn even guys who grew up on ’60s muscle cars into something they might not have identified as before: environmentalists.
Large vehicles are already the most lucrative segment of the domestic auto market. SUVs and crossovers accounted for half of all vehicles sold in the U.S. for the first time ever in 2020, and pickup trucks captured an additional 20% of the U.S. auto market.
By offering relatively wealthy consumers “green” vehicles and other goods that are better—by those consumers’ own measures—than their “brown” equivalents, America’s entrepreneurs and multinationals alike are creating a new class of “accidental environmentalists,” says Matthew Kahn, a professor of economics at the University of Southern California.
Magali Delmas, a professor of management at the University of California, Los Angeles, says most people buy things based on five criteria: quality, cost, health benefits, status enhancement and emotional connection. She uses a related term: “convenient environmentalists,” for people who will make the green choice only if it doesn’t require sacrifice.
Climate activists are critical of economists who believe existing markets will solve for a tragedy of the commons like greenhouse-gas emissions. One reason is fear that people will think the climate crisis will resolve on its own. Economists and social scientists counter that research shows most consumers won’t be moved by shaming from activists. Support for legislation that would force people to make more climate-friendly decisions has been weak in recent years, and America still has yet to pass any substantial federal regulations on emissions.
As Bill Gates argues in his new book on averting a climate disaster, when people spend money on low-emissions products like electric vehicles, markets do their thing and investors pour money into the continuing development of the technologies that will ultimately get us to an economy with net-zero greenhouse-gas emissions.
If this argument is valid, then there are several reasons to think the bigger the EV, the better.
You could call Sagar Rambhia, a 26-year-old ophthalmologist doing his residency in Los Angeles, a convenient environmentalist. He says he’s “indifferent” about the emissions of his personal vehicle, but supports the shift to more renewable-energy sources. He bought a Tesla Model S, which he charges at home and at the hospital where he works, because it is low-maintenance, lets him access the carpool lane on L.A.’s notoriously snarled I-405 and is “by far the fastest car I’ve ever owned.”
But while Teslas are generally considered to be better for the environment than gas-powered cars, it’s an open question about whether an electric Hummer offers the same benefit. That might depend on whether the Hummer EV is replacing a combustion-engine Hummer, or if its electron-guzzling power and its ability to “crab walk” has lured someone who would otherwise commute via light rail. (According to some analyses, it may also depend on how the electricity that powers a given Hummer EV is produced. EVs that run on coal power are likely no better for the environment.)