ROME – Time of ecological transition and therefore also of important choices. Especially when it comes to changing cars. This is why we tried to understand how Italians really think on the subject and what obstacles could slow down the change. We did this through the survey carried out in collaboration with the AutoXY portal (which has been online these days on our site). Over 21,500 users answered our questions, a very large sample of people “willing” to buy a new car that allowed us to understand the real situation a little better.
Many interesting data. The first concerns the electric car, the hot topic of the moment. Well, to say yes to the purchase, or rather to be inclined to do so, it was 22 per cent of the sample (more than one in five), therefore well above the current market share in Italy (7 per cent the figure for October, the latest available, and 4.3% in the first ten months of the year). The same result also for the hybrids which would be interested in 44.83 percent of those who responded to the survey compared to a share of 28.7 percent in 2021. The full hybrid solution is the most popular (42.45%) followed by plug-ins (40.91) and mild hybrids far behind, still just 16.64%.
First conclusion: there is a much greater propensity to buy an electric or hybrid car than what actually materializes on the market. The reasons? They certainly concern the general and management costs and above all the development of infrastructures, in practice the charging stations. Only 16.76 percent, in fact, have confidence in their rapid spread. Percentage that certainly slows down growth. In short, even if over 83 percent think the ecological choice is important and the fact that a world with zero emissions is the only possible one for the next few years, the uncertainty regarding the development of infrastructures continues to have a decisive weight.
Another contrasting figure concerns fuels. 33.17 percent of users are still inclined to continue in the tradition (ie petrol, diesel and LPG-methane). And so far nothing particular, given that it is a percentage even lower than what actually happens on the market (in October the shares were respectively 25.8, 18 and 9.1 per cent). What is striking is 49.8 per cent still willing to buy a diesel car and only 36 per cent to choose a petrol model. It is a fact that does not correspond to what really happens in sales in Italy but that must equally make the world of cars reflect and the politics on which energy choices depend.
For the rest, 80.3 percent of those who would buy a car using the purchase and maintenance cost as a choice criterion are oriented towards a traditional diet. This percentage drops to 48.41% for hybrid power and 38.59% for electric. The greater the focus on costs, the greater the chances of a cheaper purchase (traditional, hybrid, electric).
Inversely proportional, however, is the correlation between those who pay attention to environmental aspects and the type of power supply (traditional 9.59%, hybrid 40.17%, electric 54.07%). Finally, few (only 10.09%) use the “value over time” criterion, especially in this period where technological obsolescence and regulatory uncertainties make any forecast difficult. The real problem of the ecological transition.
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