Mike Blake/Reuters
- Automakers say they are all in on electric, and spending billions to get there.
- But EV adoption is still a challenge; less than one-third of US car buyers said they want to go EV.
- Car buyers are weighing a lot of factors like EV resale value and recycling plans.
Only 30% of US consumers are considering going electric for their next car, according to a new study from Deloitte.
That's compared with 63% who said their next car will be an internal combustion engine vehicle and 7% who don't know. For context, a whopping 48% of European consumers surveyed said they'd prefer their next car be electric, while 36% said it'd be gas-powered, and 16% were on the fence.
The results, from a Deloitte study of 9,500 consumers in nine countries, aren't good news for automakers spending $1.2 trillion to electrify by 2030.
The US has lagged behind Asia and Europe in the transition to EVs, but saw progress with adoption last year — the vehicles made up just about 6% of the market in 2022, growing substantially over 2021. Still, experts and studies like Deloitte's suggest that could slow a bit, and there are a few reasons why.
What car buyers are weighing before going EV
US consumers are hesitant to go electric for a variety of factors — charging infrastructure developments that lag behind EV-sales forecasts, battery performance uncertainty, and sudden drops in gas-powered vehicle prices are chief among them.
Interestingly, of the US consumers Deloitte surveyed, 74% said they consider a plan for battery recycling and reuse as one factor in their choice of EV brand.
If an automaker doesn't have concrete plans in place for recycling — and many of them don't seem to, yet — that could turn a consumer off to buying an EV from that company.
Car buyers are also weighing resale value, a pretty standard factor to consider, especially before going electric.
In the US, 61% of buyers are either very or somewhat concerned about an EV's resale value, compared to 55% that are very or somewhat concerned about a gas-powered vehicle's resale value.
The concern over EV resale is "likely due to rapidly evolving EV and battery technologies," according to Deloitte's report. There is more perceived risk exposure for EVs for which there is limited residual value forecasting available.
Meanwhile, the (albeit lower) concern about internal combustion vehicles stems from considering "their planned obsolescence in favor of EV adoption."