Is the craze for electric vehicles fading? This is what a consultation conducted by AutoHebdo, an online vehicle sales platform, suggests. The purchasing cost and battery life are the main factors that put off consumers.
Just under half (46%) of owners of a gasoline model say they are considering getting an electric car when the time comes to change vehicles. “You might think it’s good news to see that almost one in two people want to buy an electric vehicle, but the problem is that they were 68% two years ago,” underlines Benoit Laforce, director general of AutoHebdo.
Among the main obstacles to purchasing a zero-emission vehicle are limited range (79% of respondents), an insufficient network of charging stations (72%), and a higher purchase cost (68%). ) and the belief that electric vehicles are not suitable for Canada’s colder climate (59%).
In Quebec, limited autonomy (76%), the higher purchasing cost (71%) and the insufficient number of charging stations (61%) are the reasons most often given by consumers who do not yet say ready to abandon the combustion engine.
The fact that a large proportion of respondents indicate that the high purchasing cost dampens consumer enthusiasm concerns Benoit Laforce.
Our consultation was carried out before the Quebec government announced the gradual end of subsidies [Roulez vert] for the purchase of an electric vehicle. You might think there will be even more of them next year [à invoquer le coût d’achat] while subsidies will be less generous.
Benoit Laforce, general director of AutoHebdo
This is also what motivates Annie Desrochers to complete the purchase of an electric vehicle before the Quebec subsidy gradually decreases from 1er January 2025. This mother from the South Shore emphasizes that a second car is necessary with her two daughters who play soccer at the elite level.
“Without any subsidy, there is a good chance that we would choose a cheaper gasoline model instead,” she says. I just came to the Electric Vehicle Show [au Stade olympique] to see the different models, although our choice is almost made,” she says.
PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, THE PRESS
Rivian brand vehicle on display at the Electric Vehicle Show
Denis and Francine Cardinal want to sell their Hyundai Ioniq 5 to get a slightly cheaper vehicle. Since they retired, their needs and their income have changed, but they say there is no going back: the next car will also be electric! “Since we tried it, we love it,” emphasizes Francine.
Increase in buyers
If Quebecers seem more reluctant to buy an electric model, according to AutoHebdo’s consultation, we still observe an increase in buyers, from 10% to 12% between 2023 and 2024, a sign that sales continue to increase despite everything. .
According to the most recent count carried out by the firm S&P Global, zero-emission vehicles represented 22.8% of new registrations in Quebec for the third quarter of 2023, an increase of 10% compared to the previous year.
Although they can constitute an indicator of consumers’ purchasing intentions, AutoHebdo’s results are not the result of a formal survey. Rather, it is a consultation conducted between February 9 and March 11 among 1,559 Canadian visitors to the autohebdo.net website and not a survey with a representative sample of the population.
A pilot project to promote transport by electric trucks
Quebec announced $3.3 million in aid to deploy a pilot project aimed at testing the delivery of goods by electric truck between Quebec and Montreal. The Minister of Economy, Innovation and Energy, Pierre Fitzgibbon, made the announcement on Friday at the opening of the Electric Vehicle Show, which is being held at the Olympic Stadium until Sunday. The project will be coordinated by Propulsion Québec with the collaboration of Nationex, a transportation company from Longueuil. The objective is to test, with real customers, the advantages and limits of a transport system with electric trucks.
Eric-Pierre Champagne, The Press