A new McKinsey & Co. survey has revealed rather shocking results. Among the survey’s respondents, which are comprised of 30,000 individuals who regularly use mobility, 29% of EV owners globally are likely to switch back to an internal combustion engine-powered vehicle. In the United States, the number was worse, as 46% of McKinsey’s respondents stated that they are likely to switch back to ICE.
McKinsey provided several reasons behind the rather shocking findings. According to the global management consulting firm’s findings, EV owners who are looking to switch back to combustion-powered cars have several reasons, the most notable of which are subpar charging infrastructure, the total cost of EV ownership being too high, and driving patterns on long-distance trips being too impacted.
These reasons are quite interesting because they have generally been addressed by electric vehicle leaders such as Tesla, which started building out an expansive, reliable rapid charging network across the United States since the days of the early Model S sedan. It was then unsurprising that the findings of McKinsey’s study have been received with skepticism by electric vehicle advocates.
In social media platforms such as X, avid EV fans have noted that the survey’s findings are quite interesting because they do not reflect their everyday EV ownership experience. One of the most notable points surrounding EVs, after all, is the idea that drivers who experience electric vehicles typically don’t go back to combustion-powered cars. This was the whole idea behind the Tesla community’s “butts in seats” efforts in the past.
It was not just members of the electric vehicle community that were surprised by the results of the survey. In a comment to Automotive News, Philipp Kampshoff, leader of McKinsey’s Center for Future Mobility, noted that he did not expect such a large number of respondents to state that they would likely shift back to a combustion-powered car. “I didn’t expect that. I thought, ‘Once an EV buyer, always an EV buyer,'” he told the publication.
Other notable findings from McKinsey’s survey suggest that car buyers are quite interested in electric vehicles, with 38% of respondents globally who are currently not driving an EV stating that they would consider a battery electric vehicle or a plug-in hybrid as their next vehicle. A respectable 59% of EV buyers would also like to use more digital connectivity services in the future.
McKinsey & Co.’s survey can be viewed below.
Mobility Consumer Pulse 202… by web-producers
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