A poll of Zap-Map’s community of electric vehicle drivers has revealed that 91% will not be replacing their current EV with a petrol or diesel vehicle.
In the survey of 2000 people, carried out in November 2020, less than 1% said they wanted to return to conventionally fuelled vehicles while 9% said they were not sure.
A total of 73% of respondents said their current vehicle was their first EV, with 52% of them having made the purchase within the last year.
EV drivers also reported a driver satisfaction score of 91 out of 100, compared with only 72 for petrol or diesel vehicles.
Models which received the highest satisfaction ratings were: the Volkswagen ID.3, Kia Niro Plug-in Hybrid, and BMW 3 Series saloon (all 100%); Tesla Model 3 (96%); Kia e-Niro (96%); and the Hyundai KONA electric (94%).
According to Department for Transport data, the UK’s EV charging network grew by a fifth in 2020, and now provides about 19,500 charge points and more than 3,500 rapid charge points.
Melanie Shufflebotham, co-founder of Zap-Map, said, “Our latest poll shows the strong and enduring impact of switching to a clean car. The evidence in favour of electric vehicles grows more compelling with each one of our surveys, even in a year as disruptive as 2020.
“The challenge for the automotive industry is to take advantage of the opportunities that EVs present, not only in terms of the rapidly expanding range, but also ensuring that sales staff are knowledgeable enough to present the benefits to their customers.
“At Zap-Map we monitor the growth of the charging network and it’s clear that many of the historical challenges of owning and running an EV have fallen away. The dramatic growth in EV sales in 2020 is one of the good news stories to come out of this difficult year for the car industry.”
