Electric vehicles from novelty to controversy: Analyzing environmental and fairness claims in open-ended survey questions

We combine open-ended and fixed-response questions to examine common topics mobilized by survey respondents, valence and meanings of particular words within those topics, and how words and topics map onto approval and satisfaction with electric vehicles. Our results show high overall support for electrification of personal cars but notes concerns related to the environment (notably the production and disposal of batteries) and around distributional effects that need to be addressed.