Canadian electric vehicle (EV) owners love their cars, and the results of the largest-ever survey shows nearly all of them would buy another EV when the time comes. Not only do Canadian’s love their EVs, the survey also shows that any concerns they had about switching to electric declined significantly after owning one.
Those are the findings of a Canadian Automobile Association (CAA) commissioned survey of 16,232 EV owners conducted across all of Canada between November 21 and December 11, 2022.
According to the results of the survey published this week 97% of respondents will buy another EV when it comes time to replace their existing one. That high level of satisfaction was borne out in the results of some of other questions in the survey. Almost nine in ten (89%) enjoy driving their EV more than their previous internal combustion engine (ICE) car, while that enjoyment seems to come from the affordability (97% said their EV was more affordable) and the superior performance of emissions-free driving (92% said their EV is quieter).
The survey also found that EV ownership is far superior to ICE ownership, despite what you might hear in the media. Some common pre-purchase concerns about EV ownership declined significantly once people are actually able to get behind the wheel of an EV. Concerns about range fell 37 percentage points to 30%, cold-weather performance concerns dropped 25 percentage points to 33%, and fears about battery degradation fell 41 percentage points to 13%.
There are still some concerns among EV owners in Canada, and the biggest one relates to public charging infrastructure. Respondents said they spend 30% of their time charging outside of their home, but more than four out of every 10 (44%) are worried about finding a public charger.
This lack of confidence in the availability of public chargers leads to a lack of confidence in taking road trips in their EV. Out of the participants surveyed, 36% won’t go on a lengthy road trip in their EV, and a majority of electric vehicle drivers (67%) also own a gasoline-powered car, which they tend to utilize for extended travels.
“We know EVs are gaining sales, but a lot of people still have questions. We think this research – into the actual experiences of EV drivers in Canada – sheds an important light into where the real pain points are, and where potential buyers can perhaps worry less,” said Ian Jack, vice president of public affairs for CAA National.
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