EV drivers not put off by rising energy costs

More than half of UK EV owners have said they aren’t deterred by rising running costs and they don’t regret owning an EV.

In fact, only 23% of UK motorists said that the uncertainty of future increased costs due to the energy crisis is putting them off owning an EV. This is a huge drop from data released by The AA in September 2022 which claimed 63% of drivers were left uncertain by energy price hikes.

This new data is according to YouGov research released by Monta, an EV charging platform, which investigated EV owners attitudes and barriers to EV adoption.

Alok Dubey, Regional Director at Monta said: “There is lots of negative information surrounding EV ownership – charge rage, range anxiety, and now potentially increased running costs through rising energy bills. The reality however, is that running an EV is much cheaper than running a petrol or diesel vehicle. And with new technology allowing EV owners to tap into Solar energy to charge their EVs, these costs can be reduced even further.”

Big questions are actually being asked about the UK charge point infrastructure with almost half of UK drivers (45%) citing a lack of charge point infrastructure as a major barrier to owning an EV.

Dubey added: “The UK government has been falling behind its targets to improve the public charge point infrastructure for some years now, and rumours of the deadline being extended only raise more questions amongst motorists about whether making the switch to EV is viable. This is why we’ve been working hard to expand the network of private charge points – both business and personal – and making them available for public use. This not only vastly increases the charge point network, but also acts as a source of income for private owners of EV charge points.”

The majority of EV owners prefer to purchase their vehicle outright (43%), but leasing (29%) and company schemes (11%) are also popular options.

Dubey concluded: “It’s great to discover that purchasing an EV outright is such a popular choice and car manufacturers are releasing more and more EV models as part of their fleet. As EV ownership continues to rise, UK businesses should be considering how they can better serve employees that own an EV. Indeed, the YouGov research shows that almost half of UK EV drivers (47%) would be willing to pay for EV charging at their workplace. So this could be an extra source of revenue for businesses to offset some of their own energy costs.