Drivers are becoming more reluctant to switch to electric vehicles from combustion engines and the trend is more pronounced in Europe than in the United States, a survey published by Shell on Tuesday showed.
The main obstacle is cost, according to the survey of 15,000 drivers across the world, including Britain, China, Germany and the United States.
“Europe surprised us,” said David Bunch, Shell’s chief for mobility and convenience. “The single biggest barrier to entry is the cost of the vehicle. Range anxiety is still there but it’s diminishing.”
Electric vehicles are on average up to 30% more expensive than internal combustion engine cars.
This year, 41% of respondents in Europe said they would consider switching to an electric car compared with 48% last year, while in the United States the number fell three percentage points to 31%, the survey showed.
In terms of the pace at which the charging experience is improving, only about half of European drivers said public charging had improved in the last year, below China’s 74% and 80% in the United States.
Only 17% of European drivers asked said public charging offered value for money, compared with 69% in China and 71% in the United States.
Shell runs 75,000 charging points and focuses its EV strategy on fast, on-the-go charging points rather than home-charging. Its core EV markets are China, Britain, Germany, Switzerland, Singapore, the Netherlands and the United States.
(Reporting by Shadia Nasralla)
