While we wait to see if November’s recovery in electric car sales in Ireland was more than a blip, a new survey of EV customer satisfaction by Volkswagen Ireland has shown that people who currently own an electric car are overwhelmingly likely to buy another.
More than 2,000 Irish drivers surveyed
The online survey, which was carried out by Core Research for Volkswagen Group Ireland as part of a broader white paper on EV ownership, involved 708 EV owners and 1,605 owners of petrol or diesel models. The results show the perceptions of EV ownership held by non-EV owners are radically different to the actual experience of owners.
The headline figure is that, of current EV owners, 60 per cent say that they "love their electric car" and won’t be going back to petrol nor diesel. A further 25 per cent say that while the transition to electric power has not been entirely smooth, they are very likely to buy another EV when they trade-in.
Only two per cent of current EV owners say that they will go back to petrol or diesel for their next car purchase.
However, among current petrol or diesel buyers, the passion for going electric is not reciprocated - many of those drivers say that they have doubts about making the switch to electric power.
Half say they’ll drive an EV within ten years
In fact, 55 per cent of petrol and diesel drivers say that they "are not looking" for an electric car next time out, although 45 per cent did say that there’s a chance they could be convinced. Half said that it was likely that they would be driving an electric car within the next ten years, while 20 per cent said that it was likely within five years.
Why are people holding back? Well, 60 per cent of non-EV drivers said that they’re concerned about running out of charge (only 25 per cent of current electric owners said the same). Some 43 per cent of non-EV drivers said that they were also concerned about how often an electric car would need to be charged, whereas only ten per cent of EV owners said the same.
Interestingly, while 20 per cent of non-EV owners were worried that an electric car would need to be charged at home every day, only three per cent of actual EV owners said that they do this. When it comes to home charging, 89 per cent of EV owners said that they have a driveway or other off-street parking, while 75 per cent of petrol and diesel drivers do.
Equally, there’s not a huge gap in the average annual mileage of both groups of drivers: 24 per cent of both groups said that they drive between 15,000km and 19,999km per year, and 29 per cent of EV drivers said that they cover more than 20,000km — a distance which 32 per cent of petrol and diesel drivers cover.
Majority happy with purchase
A majority of EV owners say that they are happy with their purchase, and the various aspects of owning and running an electric car, but 11 per cent did flag up concerns with the rate of tyre wear for EVs.
There’s a worrying statistic when it comes to public charging, too — some EV owners (28 per cent) still have concerns about the practicalities of using public charging facilities while 53 per cent said that this is a part of ownership they have struggled with or still have reservations about.
Volkswagen’s take on its survey results is that there are two primary areas holding people back from EV ownership. The first is the public charging network, or lack thereof, and then the lack of "information and reassurance on the battery life and warranty of EVs." VW does points out it offers an eight-year warranty for all of its EV batteries, and also highlighted research showing the reliability of electric car batteries and their ability to retain performance over time.
Pierre Boutin, Chief Executive of Volkswagen Group Ireland said: “There has been a slowdown in the rate of EV adoption, and this has occurred for a number of reasons. Some motorists have genuinely held, but often misplaced, concerns about the practicality of EV ownership while others are uncertain about the benefits of owning an EV due to myths and misinformation.
“If we are going to successfully transition to electric motoring and meet emissions targets, there is a need for better public charging infrastructure and for more incentives, but there is also a knowledge gap, which can and should be addressed. The survey findings show that the perceptions of EV ownership do not match the lived experience of actual EV owners. They also clearly show that there is an opportunity for policymakers and manufacturers to provide better and more targeted information to the motoring public. Collectively, we need to highlight the measures already in place to reassure buyers that they are making the right decision when buying their next car.”