100% of UK car buyers are ready to go electric for the right price

A new study in the UK shows that 100% of new car buyers in the country are ready to go electric for the right price.

Large parts of the population used to have a lot of concerns about going electric for their next vehicle – things like range, charging, long-term battery capacity, and several other factors have been cited by people hesitant about going electric.

In the UK, an annual “Driving Away From Fossil Fuels” report surveyed car buyers and in 2011, less than 1% said they would consider an electric car even if it was at price parity with fossil fuel-powered vehicles. The number went up to only 2% in 2015.

Now in 2022, the number surprisingly already went up to 100% (when including plug-in hybrids):

As long as battery-electric vehicles (BEV) and plug-in hybrids were sold for the same price as equivalent conventional cars, 100% of the 2,000 new car buyers in the UK, surveyed for the Driving Away From Fossil Fuels report, indicated they would opt for one.

Interestingly, that’s despite 81% of the new car buyers surveyed relying on street parking, which makes overnight home charging more difficult.

Crucially, the survey finds that earlier deployment of public charging infrastructure will not significantly impact consumer demand for EVs. This is because 81% of new car buyers surveyed have access to some form of off-street parking. The finding that charging infrastructure will not affect demand for new EVs cuts against claims made by some car manufacturers that policies such as the ban on new petrol and diesels from 2030 need to be scrapped due to a lack of public charging infrastructure.

EV supporters in the UK are hoping to use the report to show that the shift to electric vehicles is going to happen faster than most think and markets, like the UK, need to prepare for it.

Stephen Metcalfe, Conservative MP for South Basildon, who writes a foreword to the report, commented:

I’m delighted to have worked with the FairCharge campaign in publishing this report today – the findings are striking and indicate we are at risk of missing a golden opportunity to go greener, faster – and realize in full the benefits of the electrification of road transport. We will be presenting these findings to my colleagues in Parliament today, and I hope that they will join myself and the 80,000 FairCharge campaign supporters to push the Government to ensure we seize this moment.

More specifically, the group is pushing for the Government to “abolish the VAT differential between public EV charging (20% rate) and home charging (5% rate) to ensure those without off-street charging aren’t left behind and are pushing the Government to ensure local authorities are better resourced to implement plans to improve charging infrastructure.”