For our newest report, Electric Car Drivers: Demands, Desires & Dreams (2019), we surveyed thousands of plug-in vehicle drivers to find out more about their electric vehicle buying decisions, what they want from their next EVs, how EV life is going, and more. Below are some of the top-line takeaway points from the surveys of US, Canadian, and British respondents.
Perhaps the most fascinating new question in this year’s “Electric Car Drivers: Demands, Desires & Dreams” report concerned the electric vehicles people considered but didn’t buy.
From a brand new CleanTechnica report (published today), we have some insight into which electric vehicles (EVs) current EV owners are most likely to buy next*.
Tracking monthly US auto sales by company or brand is one of the oddest-feeling things I’ve done in my decade or so covering cleantech. Perhaps that’s because the focus is on tracking non-clean tech. The fact is, though, it shocks me every month to see how many people still buy gasoline cars. Gasoline cars are far worse than electric cars currently on the market for the same cost (or even less). Nonetheless, there are so many people buying clunky, noisy, slow, high-maintenance, low-tech, high-depreciation gasoline vehicles every single day. Objectively, it doesn’t make sense.
The South Korean electric vehicle market doesn’t get the most attention, but it is bubbling up, with 2% of passenger vehicle sales in the country now EV sales. Similar to the USA, though, the market is dominated by just a few models.
Norway gets most of the glory for electric vehicle sales leadership, or China does for the sheer volume of sales there (approximately half of the global market), but there are a few other country markets with notable electric vehicle market share (if not volume) that are fun to track and interesting to compare to Norway. One of those markets is Sweden, which very quietly sits near the top of EV market share rankings.
After two years with my Soul EV, and over 32,000 km (20,000 miles) later, the dream of having an EV is now just a good memory. The EV routine has become the new normal. The Kia has become the primary choice for driving, not only for commutes and daily errands, but also for some larger trips — up to 300 km (200 miles) — when fast-charging is available. That has left the fossil crossover relegated for that odd trip into the wilderness, or long travel where charging anxiety would be the norm.
Back in 2015, when we shopped EVs and then leased a Nissan Leaf, we were the primary EV educators up to the point of sale, not the salespeople. Even during the test drive, we had more knowledge. Our grasp on the function and reality of electric cars seemed to overwhelm the salesperson. We passionately emphasized why we wanted an electric car. Our sales person remained less than enthusiastic.
Something clicked in the German plug-in vehicle market after the summer holidays. The market had a record month (9,452 registrations) in September, and then October came and set a new record, this time 26% above the previous one! 11,926 plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) were registered, more than doubling last year’s result. With China’s PEV market in post-subsidy blues, this is a welcome boost to global sales. Now if only the US market helped to carry the burden…
The French plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) market had 6,433 registrations in October, up 65% year over year (YoY). Interestingly, this time, it was the plug-in hybrids (+118%) pulling the market up the most, with BEVs growing “just” 53%.
