• A new survey finds that 92 percent of electric vehicle owners will buy another EV for their next purchase.
There's so much talk when it comes to electric vehicles it can get cacophonous. There are those for and those against; there are skeptics and believers. And on the ground, in some markets their adoption continues to grow rapidly, while in others it has stagnated, or has yet to really take hold.
One new study, however, comes to one clear conclusion: the large majority of EV owners have no intention of going back to an ICE vehicle.
The survey conducted by an international pressure group found 9 of 10 electric vehicle owners say they will stick with that format for their next purchase. And the main reason cited was the lower running costs associated with EVs.
Of the 23,000 EV owners surveyed by the Global EV Drivers Alliance, which represents some 336,000 electric vehicle owners, 92 percent plan to buy an EV next time around. Only 1 percent said they would return to a gasoline-engine model. The remainder, around 4 percent, plan to opt for a plug-in hybrid.
“What we're finding is that there's not much difference between what drivers have experienced in Norway and what's happening in other countries. People who opt for an electric vehicle are happy with their choice,” said Petter Haugneland, Deputy Secretary General of the Norwegian Electric Vehicle Association.
Along with the lower operating costs of an EV, respondents cited better environmental friendliness, driving pleasure and government incentives as reasons for sticking with electric.
Not all roses
Among the irritants, charging infrastructure is the main drawback cited by respondents, from 18 countries, including the U.S., Austria, Brazil, Canada, France and India.
In that case, complaints varied from region to region. It's easy to imagine, for instance, that charging infrastructure is less of an issue in Quebec than in Wyoming in the U.S.
Haugneland added that “If policymakers want to help potential customers, they need to make vehicle prices competitive and improve charging infrastructure.”
Price is certainly an important issue. People who have already bought an electric vehicle did so because they could afford it. To conquer other consumers, automakers will need to introduce more affordable models. A few have promised those, but so far, on the ground, there are few of them. We'll have to see what impact they have when they come to market.
