NATIONAL PULSE – Charged up about electric vehicles, but price an issue

More than half say governments should do more to incentivize the public to purchase electric vehicles

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By ANGUS REID INSTITUTE

Sept. 20, 2018 – As the Ontario provincial government winds down its rebate program for residents purchasing electric vehicles, a new public opinion poll from the Angus Reid Institute finds relatively few Canadians taking advantage of such programs.

More than nine-in-ten Canadians (91%) have never owned an electric vehicle, whether plug-in or hybrid. Indeed, nearly eight-in-ten (79%) have never even driven such a vehicle.

After more than half a decade of purchase incentives in the country’s three most-populous provinces, Canadians continue to harbour significant reservations about the affordability and ease of charging plug-in electric vehicles. Indeed, it is those who have made the switch to either a hybrid or fully electric vehicle who are among the most likely to voice these concerns.

The price factor is particularly salient. Roughly six-in-ten Canadians (59%) say price is one of their two most important considerations when buying a new car.

More Key Findings:

• Just over half of Canadians (56%) say governments should do more to get people to buy electric cars, rather than leaving the price and popularity of such vehicles completely to the free market

• More Canadians would either “definitely” or “probably” consider a hybrid if they were in the market for a new vehicle than say they would definitely or probably not consider one (42% versus 28%). This ratio is roughly reversed for plug-ins (43% would not consider; 32% would)

• Three-quarters of Canadians (75%) agree with the statement “I’m less inclined to buy an electric vehicle because they’re too expensive,” and more than six-in-ten (62%) say they would be “more likely to buy a plug-in electric vehicle if there were more public charging stations”

Link to the poll here: www.angusreid.org/electric-vehicles