Electric vehicles haven’t taken off in Australia yet but their popularity is growing around the world. Fleet Auto News found this research from the UK that identifies some of the main concerns that are limiting their adoption by fleets and private buyers.
- High purchase price (82% concerned)
- Government grants are available to motorists of up to £4,500 off the list price of a new EV, meaning they are much more reasonably priced than you might expect. Many plug in hybrids are already priced at a very similar price to the equivalent diesel.
- Availability of public charging points (81%)
- There are more than 4,000 publically accessible charge points available in the UK through Chargemaster’s POLAR network alone and a further 500 will be added in 2016. This means that motorists are never far from your next charge.
- Time to offset higher purchase price through fuel & taxation savings (68%)
- It can cost as little at 2p per mile to power an EV, while drivers pay no vehicle excise duty (VED) or congestion charge in London. Fleet drivers also benefit from Benefit in Kind (BiK) savings, meaning motorists stand to save significantly.
- Durability of battery (65%)
- Batteries in older EVs are already aging much better than engineers had ever predicted, so owners are finding that battery durability is much better than expected. Many EV car manufacturers are now providing battery warrantees of around eight years.
- Limited range for my day-to-day needs (59%)
- National statistics show that 95% of car journeys are under 25 miles while 32% of UK households have two or more cars. Increasingly, new EVs coming on to the market have an extended battery range. Within two years it is expected that the norm will be around 200 miles on a single charge.
