Carmakers are rolling out more electric vehicles, but who is buying?

It only took a decade for traditional automakers to take electric cars seriously and offer more than a smattering of test-the-water models.

Now comes the hard part: Getting consumers to buy them.

At Frankfurt’s 2019 car show, Volkswagen AG Chief Executive Officer Herbert Diess laid it on thick, calling on governments to give up coal-fired power as he unveiled the electric ID.3 car-for-the-masses. At the Mercedes-Benz stand, where the Daimler AG brand was showing the prototype of an electric S-Class sibling, real beech trees framed massive screens displaying schools of digital fish.