A new research conducted by MINI in the US reveals how people generally think electric vehicles should be used. According to the findings, 63% of the consumers said the best way to use an EV is for commuting or city driving. At the same time, 73 percent of consumers surveyed said that the battery range of up to 75 miles was sufficient for their daily use. This is quite interesting, especially since the industry considers range to be the biggest reason why EVs aren’t adopted on a wider scale.
At the other end of the spectrum, the survey found that there is a need for additional consumer education around EVs, especially when it comes to charging technology and maximizing electric mobility solutions. Nearly three-quarters (74 percent) of consumers surveyed did not know where their nearest EV charging station was located. At the same time company data shows that 80 percent of EV owners tend to charge their cars at home.
When consumers were asked to choose an acceptable amount of time it should take to charge an EV, the most common answer (28 percent) was ‘‘I don’t know” followed by “30 minutes” (25 percent). “It is important for us as a brand to understand how consumers want to use their electric vehicles, and what they know and don’t know about them as we move closer to the launch of the MINI Cooper S E electric vehicle in the U.S.,” said Andrew Cutler, Head of Corporate Communications, MINI USA. “The more intelligence we gather, the more we can educate consumers about the many benefits of electric mobility and what MINI has to offer in the new MINI Cooper S E electric vehicle coming in early 2020.”
Overall, two-thirds (66 percent) of consumers surveyed believe that EVs are for early adopters, underscoring the need to raise mainstream awareness around EV technology. This finding may also explain that, while Federal Tax Credits on EVs certainly incentivize consumers to purchase an EV, there is still a subset of the population that is making the choice to purchase an EV based on factors beyond incentives.
