Deloitte study shows Belgians’ cold feet for EVs is growing

Even though electric cars are omnipresent at the popular Brussels Motor Show (BMS), one of the few remaining in Europe, Belgians are getting more cold feet about buying an EV. Deloitte’s Global Automotive Consumer Study, which is to be published on February 6th, shows that 45% prefer a car with a pure combustion engine (ICE), compared to 41% the year before.

A summary of the Belgian study results, based on a scientific sample of 999 interviewees, was presented in avant-premiere at the Mobia event at the BMS on Tuesday. This showed once more that the initial purchase price of an EV, range anxiety, time required to charge, and concerns about battery replacement costs are persistent prejudices the automotive sector urgently needs to address.

Crucial to sell more EVs

For the European automotive industry, 2025 will be crucial for selling more electric cars, as this will allow the industry to comply with the EU’s CO2 emission requirements and avoid huge fines. There’s work to be done for the sector to do some missionary work in informing the general public with real data instead of pushing ICE and firing up EV anxiety.

It’s no coincidence that Stellantis COO Jean-Philippe Imparato announced that dealers who go the extra mile when selling electric cars will receive incentives, doubling their profit margin compared to what they would get on an ICE car.

Most significant barriers

In figures, the most significant barriers the Belgian car diver sees for switching to an electric car are the price premium (49%, down 8% compared to last year), driving range (43%, down 6%), time required to charge (40%, down 5%), battery replacement costs (35%), cold weather performance (29%), or lack of a charger at home (28%).

Charging at home is something most expected by people living in rural or suburban environments (69%), and 38% of them actually have access to a home charger and 61% not. In cities still 32% has access to a wall box at home, 66% have not. Unsurprisingly, most high-income people (44%) are the lucky ones.

Also interesting is to see that the fear of getting stuck with an empty battery (range anxiety) is no issue with those who already use an EV daily. More than half of them (55%) do only one to four times a month a trip over 100 km long, 23% even never, and 18% say they need to do more than 100 km 5 to 14 times a month.

Most of them are not bothered by the charging time they need. 31% expect it to be no more than 11 to 20 minutes, and 35% think it is 21 to 40 minutes, 15 percent would expect up to one hour.

Lower Total Cost of Ownership?

The same study also showed that Belgian drivers are primarily attracted to switch to an EV by the lower fuel costs (50%, up 1%) and lower maintenance costs (28%), in addition to concern about the environment (37%, down 7%), and driving experience (28%, up 3%).

The latter should ring a bell that the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) brings all costs of a car (purchase price, fuel, maintenance, insurance, depreciation,…) into perspective and today already often makes a lot of EVs on par or even less costly than the same car with a combustion engine.

But TCO, the primary tool for leasing companies to determine their business, is the great unknown with the general (private) car-buying public. The automotive sector still has a lot of ‘missionary work’ to do.

Unfortunately, their advertising in light of the Brussels Motor Show is rather pushing hybrids and the choice for ICE, giving in to the irresistible instinct of the man in the street to postpone the switch to electric.

Possibilities for V2G

Those who already made the switch, mainly because they got an electric company car that will be the only one allowed beyond 2026 in Belgium, are showing less fear. The fear for the potential of more taxes and levies on ICE cars (28%, down 2%), government incentives (18%, down 6%), and the potential ban on sales of new ICE cars (21%, down 5%) all show a downward trend.

The ability of future possibilities to use the electric car’s battery as a home backup and sell electricity back to the grid operator is growing interest (15%, up 32%). Two in three Belgian consumers (64%) show interest in vehicle-to-grid (V2G) propositions,  compared to 62% for the Dutch, 67% for the Germans, 67% for the French, and 75% for the Brittains.