Only 1% of EV Drivers Would Go Back to a Gas Car* – CleanTechnica

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A new survey of electric vehicle owners around the world finds that only 1% of electric vehicle owners would buy a pure gas-powered (or diesel-powered) car for their next vehicle.

The survey comes from the Global EV Drivers Alliance (GEVA), and this is GEVA’s first survey on the topic. (Hat tip to GO TO-U.) Aside from that key finding above, the other big one is that 92% of EV owners said they’d buy another EV as their next vehicle.

There’s an asterisk (*) in the title because another 4% said they’d head on over to a plugin hybrid. One could call them gas cars just as one could call them electric cars (since they are both). While there are plenty of issues with plugin hybrid incentives and people not charging them in some markets, if someone does want to use them as EVs and just use the gas tank as emergency backup, it’s easy for them to be driven on electricity 90%+ of the time. If someone driving a BEV is planning to get a PHEV next, it’s likely they want to drive on electricity but also want some gas backup for difficult circumstances.

“These results confirm that EV drivers are highly satisfied with their choice, and that reports of declining EV popularity are greatly exaggerated,” says Petter Haugneland, Assistant Secretary General of The Norwegian EV Association.

“This is a remarkably high number and the results confirm that drivers love the EV experience and EVs are here to stay,” says Joel Levin, chair of GEVA and Director of Plug In America.

Why are EV drivers so happy with their cars?

The reason that rose to the top was lower operating costs. People like lower “fueling” (charging) costs and less maintenance. I imagine baked into that for many people is the convenience of home charging and workplace charging. Instead of having to regularly drive to a gas station to refuel, one can sit comfortably in their own home or office while the car sips electrons. These are massive time savings if you think about it, and slightly more stopping time on road trips doesn’t counteract that and make the time factor a net negative. You’re saving much more time throughout the year not going to gas stations, or for oil changes, emissions checks, etc.

Climate & air still important

Many EV drivers do prioritize the climate and air, though. “The environmental benefits of EVs emerged as the second most important motivation,” GEVA writes.

Charging still needs to improve

This will surprise no one, but the one major drawback many highlighted was the public fast charging infrastructure. “Charging infrastructure is quite good in most countries and continues to expand on a steady pace. However, some EV drivers still find charging to be a hassle. When being asked about the disadvantages of driving an EV, the results indicate that the most significant drawbacks are the limited availability of fast chargers, the time-consuming nature of charging, and the frequent downtime of fast charging stations.”

All of these things need to keep improving. We are far from an ideal end state, and it’s a constant challenge to get enough chargers installed — and in the right places, and reliable ones — as EV sales grow.

Who answered the survey?

The responses came from 23,000 EV drivers in 18 countries. GEVA claims that this is “the first and most comprehensive global survey among EV drivers.” We actually conducted global surveys of thousands of EV drivers several years ago, but, admittedly, we were not close to the scale of 23,000. Also, this is an entirely different EV era we’re in.

It’s great work that GEVA has done here. It confirms what we’ve all assumed and known for years, but it’s important to have data behind these assumptions and anecdotal experiences. Thank you, GEVA.