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That emphasis should be placed on ZEV education and outreach in the
first 30 month spending plan of the VW ZEV Investment Plan is
unassailable. The success of any other action to grow ZEV
markets—including charging and fueling infrastructure
deployment—depends on potential consumers knowing of those actions.
Research to date indicates the vast majority of car-owning
households—even new car-buying households—remain unaware of the
present possibilities to buy and drive any of a growing variety of
ZEVs. The vast majority of the car-buying public does not recognize
ZEVs when they see them and does not perceive the growing extent of
ZEV charging and fueling infrastructure. Proposals to 1)
immediately and rapidly spread and increase vehicle buyers’
awareness of ZEVs, 2) prompt vehicle buyers consideration of the
social goals and private motivations for ZEVs, and 3) provide
vehicle buyers with targeted, relevant information based on their
interests, will benefit every ZEV stakeholder and every citizen.

Statements from the ZEV stakeholder community are shaped by the
fact those statements are made by stakeholders, i.e., by people
immersed in ZEVs but not necessarily immersed in the lives of most
Californians to whom ZEVs remain unknown. Support for ZEV
infrastructure, also a goal of the first 30 month spending plan, is
not a substitute for education and outreach. At present, it seems
unlikely infrastructure deployment is even a complement to ZEV
education and outreach until enough vehicle buyers have asked
whether a ZEV is right for them. Only when vehicle buyers ask
themselves this question do the signs of a transition to
ZEVs—vehicles, charging/fueling infrastructure, incentives—become
visible and interpretable. Only if people know the signs and what
they mean will people look for the signs. Showing people the signs
of a ZEV transition, teaching people what the signs mean and how to
interpret the signs within the contexts their own lives, i.e.,
conducting a pervasive ZEV education and outreach to the population
of motor vehicle buyers, will make advertising, infrastructure
deployment, incentive programs, and all other aspects of the ZEV
transition visible and thus more effective. Thus the choice in
formulating the first 30 month spending plan is not between ZEV
education and outreach on the one hand and infrastructure
deployment on the other, but on balancing of the two to their
greatest effect.