85% of electric car drivers would never go back to the ICE age

• A survey of 3,897 electric car drivers has shown that 85% would never go back to petrol or diesel
• 50% of EV drivers say that this decision was immediate
• For the 15% who would go back to petrol or diesel, charging infrastructure and cost are cited as reasons for going back to ICE

UK media is awash with anti-EV stories, with electric car drivers apparently ditching the electrons and going back to their petrol or diesel cars. Yet new registrations of electric cars continue to increase. One in five of all new cars registered in August were pure battery electric. So as consumer confidence in EV grows, are electric car drivers really turning their back on this new way of driving, and speeding back to the familiarity of the internal combustion engine?

To find out whether people really do want to go back to the ICE age, I asked almost 4,000 EV drivers:

Electric car drivers: how long into having your first?#EV?did you decide never to go back to petrol or diesel? Or have you gone back to an internal combustion engine (ICE) - if so, why?

The poll can be found here on X (formerly Twitter) and here on LinkedIn.

The results were conclusive. Of the 3,897 electric car drivers who responded, 85% said that they have decided never to go back to petrol or diesel. Only 15% said that they are going to, or have gone back, to an internal combustion engine. ?

Many of the electric car drivers surveyed commented that they had made up their mind to stick with electric, before even having one of their own:

“Before I even got my fist EV, I knew I didn’t want to ever own a fossil car again. As soon as I got the money for my first EV, it was a done deal.”

“I’d already decided never to go back before I’d made the switch.”

“Several months before, when I had a test drive at Fully Charged Live 2019.”

?But what about the benefits to driving electric? Here’s a few highlights from the survey comments:

“… whole ownership and driving experience better in an EV. Free fuel from solars [sic], no service costs, 2p a mile overnight charging and humping almost any ICE off the lights.”

“We switched about 6 years ago. First a Leaf now a Kona. With reduced cost per mile (now about 2p), cheaper servicing and no road tax it’s been great financially.”

“I drive over 1,500 miles a month for less than ￡45: wonderful as I’m only on a state pension.”

“Once you feel that power and get the convenience of never needing to go buy fuel and how cheap it is to run there is no going back.”

For the small contingent (15%) of EV drivers who already have, or are going to, return to a gas-powered car, reasons given vary from affordability to charging infrastructure:

“Sadly I had to go back as couldn’t afford an EV. But hoping to switch back in the next 12 months.”

“Having to go back to hybrid due to… the location we are moving to (inner London) no off road parking… 100% our last ICE car.”

“Love my EV, but need an ICE car as well if we want to travel distances. Can’t reply [sic] on public charging and the cost is absolutely outrageous.”

As a seasoned electric car driver myself, I know that – if you can mostly charge at home - running costs are extremely low compared with my old diesel; it costs me less than ￡5 to fully charge my Kia e-Niro. I’m on an off-peak energy tariff, which means it’s just 7.5p/kWh for six hours overnight – or less than 2p per mile. The added benefit is that I can shift my other large energy use into those off-peak hours, making it cheap to run my washing machine and dishwasher too.

And whilst buying a new EV may be more expensive, second hand electric cars can be great value. But it’s not only the upfront costs that matter. If we look at the total cost of ownership, then EVs are often better value, once all costs are considered.

Whether you have already embraced EV, or are thinking about making the switch, here’s some food for thought around affordability, charging and innovation in this space.

• Affordability: Second hand electric car sales are ‘soaring to new levels’, making EVs more affordable to more people across our communities. In the UK around 6 million people buy used cars each year, and only 1.5m buy new, so a buoyant used market for EVs is key to mass adoption. Business leasing and EV salary sacrifice schemes are also offering affordable access to electric cars, thanks to sustained low rates of Benefit in Kind.

• Public charging: The Government goal is to have a minimum of 300,000 public chargers rolled out by 2030 but they have also said there could potentially be more than double that number. We currently have over 45k public chargers. The good news is that Government is implementing a series of improvements to public charging under the Public Charge Point Regulations 2023, covering reliability – on average a 99% rate of reliability must be maintained (although only applies to chargers above 50kW), enforcing a 24/7 helpline, and pricing must be transparent – so you know what you’ve paid! Contactless payment must also be available – on new chargers above 8kW and existing rapid chargers above 50kW. It also supports open data and promotes interoperability and payment roaming services.

• The formation of a new trade body for charge point operators should help accelerate public charging roll-out; ChargeUK is committed to investing ￡6bn in charging infrastructure by 2030.
• Innovation: Lots of neat innovation especially in the on-street charging space, with cable gully companies emerging, so that people can charge using their own electricity supply, rather than paying more for public charging. And of course, campaign body FairCharge is lobbying for reduced VAT on public charging to bring it in line with home charging costs.

I would love to hear your thoughts on all of the above. Have you happily gone electric, and if not, what's holding you back?

- Gill Nowell

#electricvehicles #ev #charging #innovation #netzero #airquality

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