Electric car, only one in four Italians would buy it
The Italians and the electric car, an increasingly cold relationship. Interest grows for this technology, but the willingness to buy them does not go hand in hand, on the contrary it decreases: the costs of the models available on the market, also due to economic uncertainty, are still perceived as too high. These are the results that emerge from the new instant survey “Your next car, what it will look like?conducted this month by the strategy consulting firm arete to investigate in the field the real propensity to purchase new cars by Italians.
Hybrid yes, but the plug doesn’t like it
The study comes almost a year after a similar previous analysis and allows you to compare the data that emerged.
74% of the interviewees declare that they use the car for their usual trips. To the question “What power will your next car have?” the relative majority of the respondents (41%) answered indicating the hybridfollowed by the‘electric (27% of the total and down by 11 percentage points, from 38% declared in 2022) and then from petrol (14%) and diesel (10%). A declaration of intent that today does not find comfort in the market of registrations where electric is still limited below 4% and which then collides with the insufficient spending capacity today for the average costs of these cars. All this while 9 out of 10 Italians declare themselves interested in trying them and testing them for a few days.
And the purchase is made in installments
Economic uncertainty pushes 2 out of 3 Italians to hypothesize the purchase of the second most important asset after the house through alternative tools to payment with a single solutionsuch as financing, long-term rental and leasing.
Among those who in the future will rely on cars on tap 30% think they use them only in the city61% also for extra-urban journeys.
In support of the electric, according to the research, there is primarily the impact on the environment. 46% of those who will buy electricity declare that they will choose it for its ability to reduce exhaust emissions; 40% will do so due to the savings that this technology allows in terms of maintenance and consumption.
The main drag is cost
The main brake on the purchase, however, remains the cost of these models struggling to cross the question. Today 76% of Italians has available a budget less than 30 thousand euros to be allocated to the new car and this precludes an important slice of the market, definitely above this threshold. Looking at the car of the near future, the quality/price ratio is the feature judged most important by motorists (27% of the sample indicated it), followed by safety and reduced consumption (13%) and low maintenance costs ( 12%).
“The data from our new instant survey,” he underlines Massimo Ghenzer – President of Areté, “reveal a growing interest in electric cars in our country which, however, is struggling to transform itself into a real propensity to purchase which is even down compared to last year. Electric technology interests Italians for zero CO2 emissions and they expect savings in consumption and maintenance costs, however the current price of electrics makes it a niche product”.