- Polling carried out by Onward, on over 2,100 UK drivers, found those in the market for buying a car this year had intent to purchase an electric car.
- The relatively high proportion of intent comes as the UK’s new government hopes to push forward the EV mandate from 2035 to 2030, for new passenger cars.
- In the meantime, manufacturers will need to ensure fully-electric cars account for an increasing proportion of their total sales, as each year passes.
EVs becoming an increasingly popular choice with new car buyers
The report, published by Onward, found that for UK consumers looking to buy a new car within the next 12 months, 37% were set on a fully-electric model. That’s a higher proportion than those hoping to purchase a conventional petrol or diesel car within the same timeframe, and roughly the same proportion as those hoping to purchase a hybrid model – with the remaining number of poll takers remaining undecided.
However, when looking at consumers planning a used car purchase, this figure dropped significantly. Just 8% of those buying second hand cars intended to go electric – although another 18% of those were ‘undecided’ on their powertrain choice. This figure should increase greatly in the coming years, particularly as a large number of ex-lease EVs flood the used markets, making for some serious bargains – particularly the Tesla Model 3, now available at under £15,000, as a used example.
Barriers to adoption found in the report echoed similar research undertaken before, such as the relatively higher price of EVs vs ICE from new, and general range anxiety. Onward gave several points of recommendation, to drive EV adoption. This included introducing an interest-free EV charging gully loan, allowing solutions such as Kerbo Charge to become even more accessible to EV owners, along-side ‘right to charge’ laws that would require landlords to provide EV charging at their properties. Onward also called for VAT on non-rapid public charging to be slashed, putting it in line with private charging.
