A recent survey of 8,000 different vehicle owners in Norway, conducted by the country’s Institute of Transport Economics, has revealed some interesting new data points — including the fact that all-electric owners in the country use their vehicles more often in general and in everyday traffic than plug-in hybrid owners do.
Another particularly interesting data point was that plug-in hybrid (PHEV) owners in the country only drive in all-electric mode roughly 55% of the time (though, this climbs to 63% when on work trips).
The new survey also revealed that fully electric vehicle (EV) owners are generally younger in age, are more likely to have multiple children, are more likely to own multiple vehicles, and typically have longer work commutes.
The survey included 3,111 EV owners; 2,065 PHEV owners; and 3,080 internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicle owners. It was conducted in March 2016.
Some other interesting findings from the survey included:
- New EV or PHEV buyers are often adding an additional vehicle to their home, rather than simply replacing an ICE vehicle.
- Most plug-ins are charged at home, some charging occurs at work, and there’s not much charging done elsewhere. Fast-charging stations are used only irregularly.
- Most plug-in electric vehicle owners are satisfied with their purchase, as well as with local incentives.
- Peer-to-peer influence is the primary driver to the purchase of all-electric vehicles. Whereas PHEV purchases are more the result of dealer and advertiser influence.
- Only 21% of EV owners rely on the one vehicle, whereas 71% also own an ICE vehicle. The remainder: 4% own a PHEV in addition to the EV, and another 4% own 2 EVs. This compares to 46% of PHEV owners only owning the single vehicle, and 48% of ICE vehicle owning households only owning a single vehicle.
- The Tesla Model S is something of an exception to these generalizations, as it “is twice as common in single EV households as in households also owning ICEVs, and 4 times as common in households owning several BEVs.” So, Tesla owners are the EV “enthusiasts” and trendsetters (well, the rich ones anyways).
- 89% of EV owners cited one of these following 4 reasons for buying another EV in the future: economy of use, future proof technology, environmental reasons, and toll-road fee exemptions. Only around 1% said that they wouldn’t buy an EV again (citing charging and range problems).
- Very important incentives for a large portion of buyers who chose an EV included: exemption from toll roads (50%), reduced annual tax (49%), and reduced imposed benefit tax (30%).
- 80% of PHEV owners cited one of these 3 reasons for buying a PHEV again: economy of use, environmental reasons, and future proof technology. 2% of those surveyed said that they wouldn’t buy an PHEV again (citing range issues in all-electric mode and issues with cold weather diminishing range).
- EV owners use their vehicles for vacations and long-range trips far less than PHEV and ICE vehicle owners do. EV owners drive their vehicles a bit more than PHEV and ICE vehicle owners do, though. 15,500 kilometers a year as compared to 15,200 kilometers and 15,000 kilometers a year, respectively.
- User estimates claim that official all-electric ranges are overstated by around 20% for the summer, and 30% for the winter. This is of course an issue with the whole European market testing/rating system, as we’ve discussed many times here at CleanTechnica before. Official US EPA range estimates are far more accurate.
It should be noted that 29% of new car sales in Norway were electric car sales in June.
Here are a few more charts on charging matters:
