Despite the environment being the biggest driver for switching to an electric vehicle, new research by digital transformation agency, Somo, has identified that the interest in petrol vehicles is not declining.
In fact, over half would consider purchasing a petrol engine vehicle next, and, surprisingly, a quarter are still considering diesel engines.
In an independent survey of 2000 UK drivers all looking to change vehicles within the next 12 months, and as part of a white paper titled Driving mass adoption of electric cars: are customers ready to switch?, only a third surveyed said they would actually consider moving to an electric car, owing to a number of concerns around practicality.
Whilst the government’s £1.5bn Road to Zero strategy aims to make the UK ‘the best place in the world to own an electric vehicle’ and despite the recent proposals to issue green-coloured number plates, the research clearly shows there is a lot more to do in switching consumer behaviours in favour of electric.
An interesting point the research uncovered is that consumers believe there will be a significant change in the future. 39% believe that there will be a core emphasis on the environment so public transport will be the key mode of transport and almost a third believe that consumers won’t own their cars in the future, they will rent them. This is interesting when you look at how the number of UK households with two cars has grown by more than half a million, now over 7.5m.
Barriers to entry
So if the research indicates a belief that behaviours will shift in the future, why is the UK so behind in electric car adoption in comparison to other parts of the world?
Cost looks to be a major barrier. The research showed that 42% of drivers cited price as one of the biggest reasons preventing them from switching to electric.