- Electric-vehicle charging is so bad it's driving some people back to fossil fuels, one study suggests.
- A lack of charging infrastructure is already a barrier for many would-be EV buyers.
- The last thing the auto industry needs is people ditching their EVs.
Difficulty charging and other issues are leading some EV buyers to consider switching back to fossil fuels — the latest bad sign for the EV transition.
A recent consumer study conducted by McKinsey found that 46% of US EV owners surveyed said they were likely to switch back to a gas-powered vehicle, compared to a global average of 29% of EV owners who said they would likely switch back to an internal-combustion engine.
Respondents in 9 major countries said the top reason for potentially ditching their EVs was a lack of charging infrastructure, something the US has historically lagged behind other nations in building. Other charging issues high on the list included a lack of charging at home and the impact of long-distance driving.
Range anxiety and access to charging infrastructure have long been considered big barriers to electric-vehicle adoption, but the revelation that these same issues may drive current battery-powered car owners back into gas-powered cars is a new blow for the already rocky EV transition.
Despite the challenges facing the segment, EVs accounted for a record 7.6% of all cars sold in the US in 2023 while the number of charging stations hit 61,000. While the rate of growth has slowed, industry experts and executives have said they expect some EV share to grow to 8% in 2024 as new models continue to hit the market, helping to keep their average price falling.
While there are plenty of shoppers interested in an electric vehicle, the options on sale are often too big, too expensive, or not practical enough to replace a gas-powered car.
Car companies are already scrambling to adjust to a sudden change in the electric-vehicle market to draw more new customers. The slowdown in EV sales growth has rocked everyone from Ford to Tesla, denting sales and forcing executives to rethink their long-term plans for electric vehicles.
While the industry has made great strides in electric-vehicle range and battery charging times, huge infrastructure holes make certain areas nearly impossible to navigate without a gas-powered engine.
McKinsey's study found this issue to be particularly acute in the US, which had the second-highest rate of respondents who said they were considering ditching their EVs. (Australia was in first place, with 49% of respondents saying they were likely to switch back.)
America's high placement shouldn't come as too much of a surprise. Charging infrastructure in the US has long been a hot-potato issue between public and private backers.
Though a push from the automotive industry to fund charging infrastructure has led to a boom in public charging stations in the last two years, these have largely been money-losing ventures.
The Biden administration has set aside $7.5 billion for charging infrastructure and has said it would add 500,000 EV charging stations by 2030. But that effort has played out slowly so far, with only a handful of stations going live since the funding was approved two years ago.
Addressing charging infrastructure is already high on the industry's list of priorities when it comes to removing barriers to adoption, but the fact that it might also drive existing EV owners away only amplifies the issue.
Correction: July 9, 2024 — An earlier version of this story misidentified where respondents who said they were considering switching back to gas-powered cars because of charging issues were located. They were in 9 countries, not only the US.
