While Canadians used to be optimistic about EVs, it seems like that optimism is fading. A new survey from EY’s Mobility Consumer Index report claims that while Canadians are looking towards buying more vehicles in the upcoming year, fewer people want them to be electric or plug-in hybrids.
According to the survey, people wanting to buy a new vehicle was up six percent compared to last year. However, only 50 percent of those people want to buy electric, compared to 52 percent in 2023. While this dip is only two percent, it breaks the rising trend of buyers wanting electric vehicles. Back in 2021, the percentage of people wanting to transition to electric was only 35 percent. That jumped to 46 percent in 2022 and then peaked at 52 percent in 2023.
EY automotive transport lead Jennifer Rogers told CTV News that buyers are worried about the lack of charging infrastructure and range anxiety. She hopes that improving public charging infrastructure will ideally reduce range anxiety among people. That said, she mentions that it will be very challenging to convince consumers to take the next step toward buying EVs.
Canada hopes to phase out new gas-powered vehicle sales by 2035, but so far, it seems that this will be hard to accomplish without significantly more investments in EV charging infrastructure and battery technology.
Rogers says that early adopters were easy to convince, but as most of them have already transitioned to EVs, it’s going to be harder to convince the remaining cohorts since they’re less excited about the tech powering electric vehicles.
Source: CTV News
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