New study: Nearly 1 in 2 EV owners wants to return to gas cars
Forty-six percent of electric vehicle (EV) owners in the US are likely to buy a gas-powered vehicle for their next car purchase, a new survey has found.
The poll, conducted by McKinsey & Co among 30,000 participants across 15 countries, found that 29% of EV owners globally are also considering internal combustion engine (ICE) cars — which run on fuel — for their next vehicle purchases. Twenty-one percent of respondents worldwide say they have no plan to ever switch to EVs, while 38% of ICE vehicle owners are considering purchasing EVs or plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs).
This lack of enthusiasm toward EVs has been blamed on a poor public charging infrastructure, high costs, and limited ranges.
Poor charging infrastructure
In November 2021, Joe Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law earmarked $7.5 billion in taxpayer funds to build a network of 500,000 EV charging stations across the country. To date, the Department of Transportation (DOT) has built seven stations.
High costs
Analyses show that because electric cars require so much electricity, EV owners are likely to pay more per mile than gas vehicle owners. For a Kia e-Niro, for instance, the UK’s best-selling affordable electric car, a full recharge can cost about £54 ($69). On a battery offering an average range of 230 miles, this amounts to 23 pence ($0.29) per mile. But for a 400-mile-range Ford Puma, last year’s fuel-powered bestseller, a £60 ($76) refueling amounts to only 15 pence ($0.19) per mile.
Similarly, owners of the electric Volkswagen ID 3 may find themselves paying 8 pence ($0.10) more per mile for a full recharge than owners of the gas-powered Volkswagen Golf pay for a full refueling.
In the UK, those who charge their EVs at home are charged a 5% value-added tax (VAT), while those who charge at public stations pay a 20% VAT.
According to a study published last year, “[t]ypical mid-priced ICE (internal combustion engine) car drivers paid about $11.29 to fuel their vehicles for 100 miles of driving. . . . That cost was around $0.31 cheaper than the amount paid by mid-priced EV drivers charging mostly at home, and over $3 less than the cost borne by comparable EV drivers charging commercially.”
The cost difference becomes even starker when factoring in EV drivers who need to recharge frequently at charging stations at an estimated cost of $14.40 per 100 miles.
High registration fees
EVs become more expensive still considering that some governments seek to charge EV owners additional fees to compensate for lost fuel taxes.
Several US states that pushed for “sustainable” and “environmentally friendly” vehicle alternatives are now imposing additional registration fees on EV owners. Illinois Democrats, for instance, proposed charging EV owners a $1,000 annual registration fee to recoup the loss in gasoline taxes. After intense backlash, however, the Prairie State settled on charging EV owners a $251 annual registration fee, $100 more than their ICE counterparts.
At least 19 states have imposed an extra annual registration fee for EVs ranging from $50 to $235, with Blue states such as Michigan and Georgia at the higher end.
Higher insurance premiums
EV repair costs are approximately 25% higher than their gas-powered counterparts after rising 33% in the first quarter of 2023, reported The Telegraph. This, in turn, has led to a 72% jump in average EV insurance costs compared with 29% for gas vehicles. Some EV owners are receiving insurance quotes of over $120 per week, while others are receiving quotes double or even triple the year before.
Other car insurers have stopped insuring EVs altogether. John Lewis Financial Services stopped offering insurance for EVs in September, and Aviva only recently restored insurance products for the Tesla Model Y after canceling them earlier this year.
“The battery is an extremely expensive component of an electric vehicle and until we find efficient ways of dealing with it we have the challenge of high premiums for electric vehicles, which nobody wants,” said Thatcham Research CEO Jonathan Hewett.
Low range
In addition to the higher costs, EVs are less equipped for extreme weather.
Winter’s cold has been known to affect an electric vehicle’s driving range, lowering it by 20%–41%, reported Axios. According to University of Michigan’s Energy Institute Director Anna Stefanopoulou, EVs “prefer the same sort of temperature range that people do. Anything below 40 or above 115 degrees Fahrenheit and they’re not going to deliver their peak performance.”
The Wall Street Journal also notes that EVs are severely hampered by extreme weather.
“When temperatures drop to 5 degrees Fahrenheit, the cars achieve only 54% of their quoted range,” wrote the WSJ. “A vehicle that’s supposed to be able to go 250 miles between charges will make it only 135 miles on average. At 32 degrees — a typical winter day in much of the country — a Tesla Model 3 that in ideal conditions can go 282 miles between charges will make it only 173 miles.”
New York City found this out when it realized that its plan to convert its fleet of 6,000 garbage trucks to electric trucks — each coming with a $523,000 price tag — can only plow for four hours before running out of battery. With approximately 19,000 miles of road requiring plowing every winter, this could mean some communities would have to manually clear their own roads.
Summer heat waves can also affect EV owners. In 2022, California state officials asked EV owners to refrain from charging their vehicles to conserve electricity needed to deal with the expected heat wave.
