Lack of chargers a top concern for EV owners, but most would still buy another: CAA

A 2023 Ford Mustang Mach-E charges, Friday, March 8, 2024, at an electric vehicle charging station in London, Ohio. (Joshua A. Bickel / AP Photo, File)

A new survey of thousands of electric vehicle (EV) owners suggests that a lack of accessible charging stations is their main concern, but most would still buy another when the time comes.

The Canadian Automobile Association (CAA) surveyed more than 16,000 EV owners about their satisfaction with their cars. While most are happy with their vehicles, range anxiety — the concern that the car could run out of charge before reaching a destination — especially in the cold is an issue because of a lack of charging infrastructure.

PlugShare Research surveyed its panel of Canadian EV drivers, as well as Canadian PlugShare app users, from Oct. 3 to Oct. 22, 2024. A total of 16,041 EV drivers responded across all provinces.

“Our survey paints a picture of people happy they bought an EV, saying they are cheaper to operate and easier to maintain than their previous gas-powered vehicles,” said Ian Jack, CAA National vice-president of public affairs in a news release. “But it also found the experience of EV owners mirrors some of what the general public thinks – public charging isn’t good enough, especially outside major urban centres, and they are concerned about being caught with a dead battery in the winter.”

The survey found seven in 10 EV drivers say there is not enough fast charging infrastructure available. When it comes to Canada’s cold climate, more than half of drivers surveyed (53 per cent) said they would prefer to drive a gas-powered vehicle on longer trips in the cold, while two-thirds (67 per cent) said lower battery range in extreme cold has been a problem. The survey found that 67 per cent of EV drivers also have access to a gas-only vehicle.

Natural Resources Canada says there are 12,572 charging stations nationwide with 32,487 EV charging ports; however, only 2,147 locations offer the level 3 or direct current fast level charging, with 6,150 available EV charging ports.

Drivers in Quebec were the most confident (68 per cent) that they would be able to find a public charging station when taking a long trip, followed by drivers in Ontario (54 per cent) and B.C. (50 per cent). Drivers in Saskatchewan were the least likely to believe that they could always find a charging station, with just 34 per cent saying strongly or somewhat agree.

Despite these issues, however, 87 per cent of surveyed drivers said they plan to buy another EV when it comes time to replace their current one. More than 90 per cent of EV owners said the cost of fueling their EV is much lower, and 79 per cent said the cost of maintenance is much better than their previous gas-powered vehicles.

Pre-purchase concerns diminish after buying

In a separate survey of the general population, including non-EV owners, CAA found more than half (52 per cent) of Canadians said they won’t purchase an EV because public charging is not reliable enough, and more than two-thirds (68 per cent) said they won’t purchase an EV because the driving range of an EV drops too much when driving in cold weather.

These findings were based on a poll of 2,880 Canadians carried out from Sept. 13 to 21, 2024. A probability sample of the same size would yield a margin of error of +/-1.9%, CAA said.

The PlugShare report, however, found that many pre-purchase concerns tend to diminish after owning an EV. While 67 per cent of battery electric vehicle owners were concerned that the vehicles would not have enough range before buying one, that number dropped to 30 per cent after ownership. Plug-in hybrid EV owners had similar trends with 62 per cent reporting worries about range before buying, dropping to 37 per cent post-purchase. Concerns about not enough public charging diminished post-purchase, but the percentage of EV owners who reported it as a concern remained high, with 44 per cent of battery EV and 57 per cent of plug-in hybrid EV owners saying it was a serious or moderately serious issue for them. Plug-in hybrid EV drivers were more likely (41 per cent) to have worries about cold weather performance than battery EV drivers (33 per cent) but both groups were less likely to cite it as a serious issue after purchase compared to before.

According to the Canada Energy Regulator, there were nearly 185,000 new electric vehicle registrations in Canada in 2023, up 49 per cent from 2022, and account for 11 per cent of all new motor vehicle registrations that year. Montreal, Vancouver, and Toronto account for more than half of all new EV registrations in Canada in 2023.

The estimated number of zero-emission vehicles on Canada’s roads has grown from less than 50,000 in 2017 to over 500,000 by 2023, the regulator says. The electricity consumption associated with these vehicles accounted for 0.3 per cent of Canada’s total electricity demand in 2023.