Knowledge and Opinions about Electric Vehicle in Brigham Young University

Abstract

The aim of this study was to assess student’s opinion and points of view about electric vehicles (EVs) at Brigham Young University-Hawaii (BYUH). To evaluate the students’ knowledge regarding electric vehicles, a survey was conducted at BYUH with a sample of 90 students. The findings show that the majority of the interviewees saw that students support electric vehicles; however, only a minority of the students disagree in supporting electric vehicle at BYUH. This study provides helpful information for the security and maintenance department of BYUH and other universities.

Introduction

Electric vehicles (EVs) are the savior in world of transportation. Because EVs can save the world by using renewable resources such as electronic energy. The EVs have an electric motor instead of an internal combustion engine (U.S. Department of Energy, 2003). The traditional vehicles use large traction battery packs to power its electric motor. The EV’s advantage is a new style of vehicle without using gas. It helps the environment and reduce pollution. Also, it makes no noise at all. EVs help people save energy. However, the disadvantages of EVs is that they need a lot of electricity all the time. They need to charge the battery every trip, it can take 30 minutes or more to charge to EVs.

EVs are better for the environment because it does not get the carbon dioxide out (Ergon Energy, 2019) Then, EVs cheaper than gasoline, and their maintenance is less frequent and less expensive (Ergon Energy, 2019). They are very quiet, get tax credits, and shorten commute time (Earth911, 2017). On the other hand, the cons are that most Evs have pretty short ranges, recharging can take a long time, they can be a large initial investment, charging station availability is inconsistent, and they offer few choices (Earth911, 2017). The aim of this study is to assess the knowledge and opinions about electronic vehicle in Hawaii among BYUH students. 8 students and I conducted in the following research questions that have guided our questions study:

1. What do the student know about the EVs?
2. What advantage and disadvantage do EVs have?

Method

The study was conducted at BYUH which is a very diverse university with nearly 2,500 students representing more than 70 countries and many different cultures. BYUH is located in Laie, Hawaii on the North Shore of the Island of Oahu. 54.4% of interviewees in the study are females, and 45.6% are males. To maintain a variety of cultures and backgrounds, 18.9% of the people who were interviewed are American, 48.9% are Asian, 25.6% are Polynesian and 6.7% are from other countries.

As an instrument for the research, we utilized a survey created by eight students and me along with eighteen other students from (EIL 320) Academic English Class II. We have made the survey. The questions were designed to get as much accurate information as possible to achieve the research questions which are what the student know about the EVs and what advantage and disadvantage do EVs have. Then, we collected the data from BYUH students. After that, we open the google document and combine all the data together

There were three background questions and five other questions created to assess the interview to see the best knowledge about the topic. All of the questions can be found in the Appendix Section. We were instructed by Dr. Mapu on how to conduct the survey with excellence are to avoid bias and any alterations within the results. Our research group was composed of nine students who interviewed students from different locations, such as the cafeteria, library, hales, Aloha Center, and the Polynesia Culture Center (PCC). Some of the interviewers recorded and some wrote down the answers. After collecting the data, we gathered result under the supervision of Dr. Mapu to combine all the data into one spreadsheet for analysis.

Results

Student’s Knowledge about Electric Vehicle

98.9% of the interviewees described their knowledge of electric vehicles. The findings also show that 60% of interviewees said that EVs reduce air pollution, save gas, and reduces noise pollution. 40% of Students also responded that electric vehicles are cheaper than gas. The five most common reasons of the advantage that students chose as electric vehicles were to reduce 40% of the air pollution, 25% of students reported that EVs save gas, 25% of quiet, and 10% of electric vehicle is cheap than gas.

Student’s views and opinions about using the electric vehicle at BYU-Hawaii. 41.1% of the students believed that people would like to use electric vehicle, 48.9% of support to use gas vehicle and 10% of both vehicles. Only one percent were neither supported nor rejected. The last question was to evaluate if students agreed or disagreed with BYUH’s supporting to use EVs or gas vehicles. The results showed that 48.9% voted using gas vehicle, and 41.1%voted in fewer of using electric vehicle.

Discussion

The main aim of this study is to evaluate what BYUH students know about EVs and if they think they count an advantage or disadvantage with EVs within the university’s campus.

The most of fascinating results noticed from the results was that even though most 88.9 % of the interviewees, support electric vehicle, only 11.1% the least part voted in favor of disagree electric vehicle in the university campus. There are some possible explanations for this finding. One possibility is that 98.9% of student know about the electric vehicles, but only 41.1% of student’s support to use the electric vehicle. Even though they know about the electric vehicle, but they do not feel it comfortable to them, they may think that gas vehicle will save students more time because EVs are not very common in North Shore area, the students cannot use EVs to take them to everywhere. And when they use EVs, they need to put more effort into it. Therefore, they want to use the EVs when they become common in Hawaii. Some feel that they wish they can use the electric vehicle someday in Hawaii when the EVs become more common and cheaper. The research conducted at BYUH shows that even though the students know about the EVs has some disadvantages, they still know about how EVs can benefit the world. This finding is consistent with the “warning labels research” (Consumer Reports, 2019). The results of this research shows it is cheaper to run, cheaper to maintain, better for the environment, come with health benefits, safety improvements, and improves energy security (Ergon Energy, 2019). Another result from the research was that 88.9% of the people support to use the EVs. This finding is supported by the study which claims that most of the people are more concerned about developing EVs than keep into traditional vehicle.

This study provides useful data to BYUH EVs and security and maintenance department. The information presented can be used to help them to create measures that will address the needs of BYU-Hawaii students regarding the use of EVs. Other intuitions and governments can also find the results of the research important when evaluating the pros and cons of using electric vehicles. Despite the benefits of the research, it is important to realize limitations. One limitation of the study is the small size of the sample. The sample represents only 1% of the total of number of students. Another limitation was the survey questions. The questions assessed their knowledge about electric vehicle; however, more questions could have been formulated to better understand what led the interviewees to negate the gas vehicle even though knowing the positive and negative aspects of EVs. For a future study, it would be important to have a larger sample because it would better present the total population of BYUH and bring more significant results which is like regarding diversity and ethnicities genders. Another improvement for a future research would be to have more questions that would evaluate why the respondents disagreed with the EVs even knowing the negative effects of electric vehicle. It is also important to consider a more variety of background questions to understand how often students are using electric vehicle on and off campus. These changes for future studies would bring more substantial information to better assess of students’ knowledge and opinions electric vehicles.