What Would Make You Go Electric?

What Would Make You Go Electric? (Jardine Motors Group)

• Jardine Motors Group recently concluded their Going Electric Survey of UK motorists in light of the growing popularity of EVs
• However, the results showed that 60% of respondents still needed to be convinced of possibly buying an EV
• The article highlights motorists key hang-ups, which include battery life, accessible charging points, charging speed & top speed, price points and environmental benefits.

Analysis & Comments

• Despite the negative headlines that this survey generated
• The headline was “60% of UK motorists would not buy an EV”. Putting it another way 40% might, 33% are considering it in the next 5 years and 15% are considering it in the next year. In the circumstances this is a lot more than one would expect.
• As with the earlier story above, market share development for EV’s will take time. Innovators and early adapters will be first, and the mass market will not kick in until at least the mid 2020’s.
• The area of greatest concern in terms of EV adaption is not so much battery life/range (which is improving), price (which is falling)  or the perception issues around EV’s being slow (which is just not true), its actually charging infrastructure availability.
• DC fast chargers can be profitable at quite low EV market share. But for the private sector to install a DC fast charging network without subsidies, they will need real political support
• Some countries already have this (mainly in the Nordics) and some (France, Germany & the Netherlands) are moving in the right direction. But the UK (where this survey was carried out) is slow.