(PresidentialHill.com)- Electric vehicles are gaining in popularity across the world, with more than 50% of all car buyers saying they were interested in the alternative fuel vehicles.
A May report published by Ernst & Young revealed that 52% of car buyers across the globe are considering an electric car for their next vehicle purchase. The interest among first-time electric vehicle buyers is now over 50%, and increased by 22% over the last two years.
While the American market is fueling some of that growth, much of it is coming from Asia and Europe. As the report reads:
“The survey of 13,000 people in 18 countries shows that car buyers in Italy (73%), China (69%) and South Korea (63%) are the most committed to buying an EV, while consumers in Australia (38%) and the U.S. (29%) are the least committed.”
Those low numbers for car buyers in the U.S. is despite the concerted efforts by the Biden administration to transition to as many electric vehicles as possible. The president has announced plans that would see many public transportation vehicles convert to electrical powered by a certain date in the relatively near future.
The main reason why car buyers are interested in electric vehicles, according to the survey, are worries about the environment, with 38% of respondents saying it was their top reason. Coming in second (at 34%) was penalties for using vehicles that have an internal combustion engine and rising prices of gasoline.
The head of the Global Advanced Manufacturing & Mobility division at Ernst & Young, Randy Miller, said following the release of the report that these findings mark a “tipping point in the global car-buying market.”
He continued:
“For the first time since EY teams have been collecting this data, more than 50% of consumers across the globe indicate that they want an EV. The speed of this change has also ben eye-opening, with a rise of 22 percentage points in just two years.
“There is no doubt that global gas prices have played their part in making internal combustion engines more expensive, but environmental concerns also remain top of the list of motivators. Consumers are becoming increasingly socially and environmentally conscious, and they’re willing to pay a premium to meet their environmental standards.”
The leader in electric car adoption in the United States is not surprisingly California. In the first quarter of 2022, EVs made up 16% of all new car sales in the state. Estimates also say there were about 200,000 electric vehicles purchase in the first quarter of 2022 across the country, which would be on pace to smash the total sales numbers from last year.
In addition to the reasons given by respondents to the surveys, interest in electric vehicles started spiking in 2018 when the U.S. started improving charging infrastructure. That has provided more places for people to charge their vehicles while they’re traveling longer distances.
In addition, the upgrade of EV batteries has allowed the cars to be driven for longer before they need a charge.
