Electric vehicles (EVs) may benefit the environment, but thousands of owners have expressed regret over their car purchase.
A McKinsey consumer mobility pulse presentation A report released in June 2024 by McKinsey & Company indicated that 46 percent of U.S. electric vehicle owners are “very” likely to return to gasoline-powered vehicles.
The data is based on responses from nearly 37,000 respondents who own electric vehicles, but the U.S. results are what surprised the firm that conducted the study.
“I didn’t expect that. I thought, ‘Once you buy an EV, you’ll always buy one,'” said Philipp Kampshoff, director of McKinsey’s Center for Future Mobility. Automotive News.
The United States ranked second among the nine countries in the study for having the highest number of EV users looking to switch back, with the primary reason being low approval ratings for EV charging infrastructure.
A presentation released in June 2024 by McKinsey & Company indicated that 46 percent of US EV owners are “very” likely to switch back to gasoline-powered vehicles.
Australia was the only place with a higher percentage of electric vehicle owners looking to switch back to gasoline cars than the United States.
A total of 35 percent of respondents globally said they would like to switch back to gasoline-powered vehicles because charging stations are “yet” not good enough.
Additionally, 34 percent of participants expressed concern about the high total cost of ownership, while another 32 percent expressed concern about frequent charging stops during long-distance trips.
Other reasons EV owners said they wanted to get rid of their cars included the inability to charge the vehicle at home, the stress that comes with needing to charge the car, mobility switching requirements, and their overall mediocre experience when driving an EV.
The other countries represented by the respondents were Australia, Brazil, China, Germany, Italy, Japan and Norway.
Australia was the only place with a higher percentage of EV owners looking to switch back to gasoline cars than the United States.
The percentages in other countries were all below 40 percent, with Japan having the most loyal EV owners; only 13 percent were dissatisfied enough to admit they would go back to gasoline.
Eleven percent of electric vehicle owners who participated in the study had problems with the distance to the nearest charging station from their home and, even more evident, a total of 38 percent said that a charging station was not near his house at all.
And for long-distance travel and road trips, 40 percent said there were not enough charging stations along highways and major roads to justify purchasing the car.
The data is based on responses from nearly 37,000 participants who own electric vehicles, but it’s the U.S. results that surprised the company that conducted the study.
Data from McKinsey & Company indicates that 35 percent of respondents globally want to return to using gasoline-powered vehicles because public charging infrastructure is “not yet” good enough.
McKinsey & Company published its presentation in the media three months after the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a new rule related to electric vehicles.
According to the guideline, 56 percent of all new vehicle sales must be electric by 2032, and at least 13 percent of them must be plug-in hybrids or other partial electric vehicles.
Since then, companies have begun investing billions of dollars in factories and battery technology to speed up the vehicle sales process, according to AP.
This rule is also intended to help reduce pollution and combat climate change, which are major focuses on President Joe Biden’s agenda.
“The EV market is growing, but consumers have enough reservations about current options and the challenges of charging infrastructure to limit more significant growth in the near term,” said analyst Jessica Caldwell.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a statement: “Not only will these new standards save Americans money at the pump every time they fill up, they will also reduce harmful pollution and make America less dependent on foreign oil,” he said in a statement.
Unfortunately, this is not enough to make drivers want to keep their electric vehicles.
“The charging infrastructure is not good enough. I think in areas like California it is better, but in most of the United States there are not enough chargers,” said motorist Michael Woods.
‘You can see in car dealerships that electric vehicles are piling up because nobody wants them. It’s a shame because I really wanted to love mine.’