Electric Cars, a Survey

With the government increasingly emphasising the importance of more environmentally friendly, green cars and even going to the lengths of offering thousands off certain green models, the popularity of the green, electric car can only increase- you would think. However a recent survey on attitudes towards electric cars by the website Parkers.co.uk showed that of the 500 people that they asked about the new phenomenon, two thirds of the people said they would not buy an electric car.

The main reasons given for purchasing electric cars was to save money on fuel costs but most felt that the cost of buying a new car was prohibitive.  The Nissan Leaf, even with the government’s £5,000 incentive still costs £23,990, which seems a lot when you compare this to the VW BlueMotion 1.6 litre at around £18,100.  Based on these figures you would only really start to save money after you had owned the Nissan Leaf for 10 years. 

Almost a third of people raised concerns over the electric cars limited mileage capabilities, with most only managing 100 miles before they need recharging.  This however would serve the average family perfectly well as a commuter car, used mainly for city driving.

There were 18% of those surveyed who were dubious of the electric cars true “green” credentials and 17% just thought that conventional cars were the better buy.  The service and supply networks needed for electric cars did not seem to worry many, with the lack of charging service stations only proving to be a problem for six per cent of the users asked who raised this as an issue that would turn them off buying an EV.  There was however still 31% of those questioned who liked the idea of the car and would buy one to save on fuel costs.