EY survey: Consumers 14 percentage points less likely to purchase an EV this year

American consumers planning to buy a new car are 14 percentage points less likely to purchase an electric vehicle than they were last year, according to the EY Mobility Consumer Index released Sept. 9.

The survey of roughly 1,500 Americans found that 34 percent of respondents planning on purchasing a new vehicle in the next two years intended to buy an EV, down from 48 percent last year.

Expensive battery replacement costs and access to public chargers top the list of concerns preventing buyers from purchasing EVs.

"We keep hearing about this stalled demand for EVs," said Steve Patton, automotive leader of EY Americas. That cooling consumer sentiment "was reflected in a much bigger way than I probably anticipated."

EY's findings support growing industry concern about the speed of the EV transition. Automakers have exhausted the early adopter pool, EV prices remain high compared with gasoline counterparts and public charging infrastructure is often unreliable. All this has slowed the rate of growth for EV sales, and automakers have delayed new electric models and production plans.

However, the survey contained some positive indicators for EV sales. The share of American car buyers concerned about limited EV range fell to 24 percent from 30 percent last year. The survey also found the share of U.S. buyers apprehensive about charging station access fell to 23 percent from 34 percent in 2022.

Consumers "are starting to realize that maybe this charging infrastructure thing isn't as big of a deal," said Patton. "It's lessening as a concern."

Yet the industry is facing a new source of EV anxiety — battery replacement costs. That fear may be unwarranted, according to industry data.

Although batteries are expensive to replace, they likely last for 12 years or more, depending on climate and vehicle usage, according to the Department of Energy.

"The consumer needs to be educated," said Patton. "Those batteries are proving to have 12-, 15-year life cycles, and most of us don't even hold a vehicle for 12 or 15 years."

Patton said worries over battery health and expense could be viewed as a proxy for general concerns about the cost of maintenance. Drivers fear that EVs require constant upkeep, when in fact the Department of Energy's Alternative Fuels Data Center says full EVs require less maintenance than conventional vehicles. EVs have no engine oil and few other fluids, and battery-powered engines contain fewer moving parts.

American consumers also have increasing interest in hybrid vehicles, EY found. The share of respondents who intended to purchase hybrids gained 2 percentage points to 17 percent in the U.S., while globally it decreased 2 percentage points to 21 percent. More than a quarter of U.S. buyers said they were attracted to the security offered by hybrids.

The survey also presented a drawback for automakers trying desperately to wrest back control of the central infotainment system from big-tech mirroring systems like Android Auto and Apple CarPlay.

Only 45 percent of American consumers said they would pay for native navigation services, and 36 percent said most services — including navigation, safety measures, maintenance requests and service updates — could be provided by their smartphones.