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Consumers warm up to EV purchases
Nearly 60% of consumers surveyed would consider an EV for their next purchases
Car shoppers are warming up to electric vehicles (EV) as charging cost fears and battery range anxiety lessens.
As of September, the percentage of consumers who reported they would consider an EV as their next vehicle climbed to 59% compared with 52% in March, while the percentage of consumers who said they are unlikely to purchase an EV fell to 19% compared with 24% in March, according to a TrueCar survey of 1,000 consumers across the U.S.
The growth in EV interest is largely driven by higher prices at the pump, with 31% of respondents reporting that they are more likely to consider purchasing or leasing an EV due to gas prices, up from 27% in March, according to the survey.
“We were expecting that as gas prices started to normalize that we would see [consumer interest] come back down, because we were seeing that most people cited avoiding high gas prices as a primary reason for considering an EV,” Wendy McMullin, director of research and insights at Santa Monica, Calif.-based TrueCar, told Auto Finance News. “It hasn’t gone down; it has actually gone up, which was the biggest surprise.”
Range anxiety
Still, range anxiety remains a barrier to EV adoption, McMullin said, noting consumers are concerned about battery range for daily needs and the ability to take an EV on a long road trip. Consumers are also anxious about how an EV battery degrades over time and how long the battery will last before it loses charging range, she said.
Meanwhile, responses from 500 consumers in the Detroit metropolitan area indicate that not all areas of the country are as interested in purchasing an EV, McMullin said. Just 49% of consumers in Detroit are likely to purchase an EV in the future compared with 59% across the U.S., in part due to fewer consumers in that region having experienced owning or driving an EV, according to the survey.
Auto Finance Summit, the premier industry event for auto lending and leasing, returns October 26-28 at the Wynn Las Vegas. To learn more about the 2022 event and register, visit www.AutoFinanceSummit.com.
