Less than one in five drivers in Europe say they favour an electric car, with the overwhelming majority still preferring to get behind the wheel of a petrol or diesel vehicle.
Only 18 per cent of survey respondents planning to buy a vehicle in the next year said they would buy an EV, bringing into question the possibility that governments need to do more to boost sales.
In stark contrast, more than two-thirds (68 per cent) of drivers said the 2035 deadline for selling new petrol and diesel vehicles should be delayed.
This is despite Prime Minister Rishi Sunak delaying the deadline to ban new internal combustion engine vehicles from 2030 to 2035 in his net zero U-turn speech last September.
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Recent data found that hybrid vehicles are more popular than electric
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The research, from Bloomberg Intelligence, also found that hybrids have gained popularity recently, with drivers seeing the vehicle type as a middle-ground between ICE and electric.
Almost half of the people questioned as part of the survey, 46 per cent said they prefer hybrids when choosing a vehicle to buy in the next 12 months, compared to just 18 per cent for EVs.
Michael Dean, senior industry analyst at BI, said: “European carmakers are dialling back EV sales goals in 2024 due to rising consumer apathy.
“This is a trend which plays to BMW, Mercedes and Toyota’s strengths, but disadvantages pureplay Tesla and China brands.
“Tesla’s sales outlook continues to deteriorate, as it fell to fourth from pole position (in August) in our buyers’ ranking of most-wanted brands as competition in the BEV space intensified.”
Almost three-quarters of drivers involved in the survey said they would have an issue buying an imported vehicle, boosting the sales expectations for legacy European brands.
Dean and the BI research pointed out that the continued price cuts from Tesla are proof that the brand is looking to sell off around one million units from its Austin and Berlin plants.
However, it warned that this could put off potential buyers as they may be concerned about low resale values.
It comes as Tesla looks to cut around 14,000 jobs – or 10 per cent – of its workforce to become “lean, innovative and hungry”.
Bloomberg reported that high-level executives including Senior Vice President Drew Baglino and Vice President of Public Policy and Business Development Rohan Patel were among those to have been let go.
In an email, Elon Musk said: “As we prepare the company for our next phase of growth, it is extremely important to look at every aspect of the company for cost reductions and increasing productivity.
“As part of this effort, we have done a thorough review of the organization and made the difficult decision to reduce our headcount by more than 10 per cent globally.
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“There is nothing I hate more, but it must be done. This will enable us to be lean, innovative and hungry for the next growth phase cycle.”
Source Agencies
