New Study Suggests That EVs Are An Acquired Taste

The first time I drove an electric vehicle (EV), it was a Tesla Model S way back in 2016. The first thing that came to mind behind the wheel was how futuristic this technology felt. I also felt genuinely sorry for the internal combustion engine (ICE). Going back to an ICE after my first Tesla experience felt like flying in a prop-shaft aircraft after spending time in a turbine-powered jet.

The fact of the matter is that EVs are the future of the automobile. And it’s the steady progress of EV technology that’ll eventually get everyone to hop onboard. Don’t take it from me. A recent study conducted by Global EV Alliance (GEA) reveals that once you go electric, the chances of wanting to go back to an ICE vehicle are very slim. And there are clear reasons for this.

Only One-Percent Of EV Owners Say They’d Prefer Going Back To ICE

GEA’s study surveyed more than 23,000 EV drivers across 18 different countries, including the U.S., Canada, France, India and Brazil. According to the data, 92-percent of current EV owners plan to buy another electric vehicle, while only one–percent said they would return to internal combustion. Interestingly enough, only four–percent of the people surveyed said they would choose a plug-in hybrid vehicle (PHEV) instead.

The motivations for sticking to EVs are also rather obvious. But while you’d think that the main reason would be the lack of tailpipe emissions, which helps contribute to our collective fight against climate change, the biggest deciding factor was actually lower operating costs. This represented 45% of the respondents’ answers. The table below shows the main motivators for keeping an EV.

Why People Prefer Keeping An EV

Even EV Owners Admit That Public Charging Infrastructure Needs To Improve

But even if the people surveyed are clearly satisfied with their EV experience, the reality is that there is still a long way to go to make it a trouble-free experience. Everyone surveyed expressed the downsides of owning an EV, which mostly comes from problems related to public charging infrastructure.

Yes, a lot of improvement has been done on that front over the past year, and it’s a continuous work in progress. The fact that almost all carmakers have embraced Tesla’s North American Charging Standard (NACS) will help mitigate some of the hassles related to public charging, while expanding the charging possibilities for owners.

But, the survey reveals that public charging is still a hassle. Some of the reasons were the limited availability of fast chargers, the time-consuming nature of charging in itself, and the all too frequent downtime of fast-charging stations. I personally witnessed this myself during a roadtrip to Toronto from Montreal in the middle of winter in a BMW i4. At each stop, there was at least one defective charger.

Of course, home charging does solve most of these problems. It will sustain a good chunk of an EV owner’s daily grind. I personally mostly never use public charging when I review EVs. But traveling the distance with an electric vehicle remains a problem, a problem that can only be solved by improving the state of charging infrastructures and reducing the time it takes for EVs to charge.