Drivers To Start Ditching Gasoline Cars for EVs As Early As 2025 – Yahoo Finance

Car buyers in the United States and major European economies expect improved infrastructure and range of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) to convince them to choose buying an electric car over a gasoline-powered car in five to ten years, a new report from human behavior and analytics firm Escalent showed this week.

Although drivers are unlikely to choose an EV over gas or diesel-powered car in the next year, the share of those who expect to buy a gasoline car in five to ten years is significantly lower, according to Escalents survey carried out in 2019 among 1,000 American consumers and more than 1,000 consumers in Germany, the UK, and Spain.

Over the coming decade, consumers expect electric vehicles to become competitors and viable alternatives to gasoline- or diesel-powered vehicles. This is a significant shift in consumers expectations, the study found.

Among American consumers, 70 percent expect to buy a gasoline car within one year, but the share of those expecting to buy a gas-powered car in five to ten years drops to just 37 percent. In Europe, 50 percent of potential car buyers would choose an internal combustion engine (ICE) car within a year, but only 23 percent would buy a gasoline vehicle in five to ten years, the survey showed.

Currently, EVs are still a tiny fraction of all cars sold in the United States, accounting for just 2.2% of all passenger car sales in Q3 2019. At the same time, sales of gasoline SUVs and non-commercial small and medium-sized pick-up trucks are on the rise.

Commenting on Escalents report, Mark Carpenter, joint managing director of Escalents UK office, said:

While most buyers dont plan to choose BEVs over gasoline-powered cars within the next five years, consumers have told us there is a clear intention to take BEVs seriously in the five years that follow.

However, manufacturers will need to tap into the emotional value of BEVs rather than just the rational and functional aspects to seize on that intent and inspire broader consumer adoption, Carpenter added.

According to Wood Mackenzie, falling battery pack prices, faster charging, and greater ranges will make the 2020s the decade of the electric vehicle.

BEVs are expected to reach price parity with conventional vehicles at point of sale in this decade, Ram Chandrasekaran, Principal Analyst Transportation & Mobility at WoodMac, said earlier this month.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com