‘Only 1% of EV drivers want to go back to pure ICE, except Germans?’

Never in automobile history, and 125 years after the electric car had to surrender to the internal combustion engine car (ICE), has the yawning gap between believers and non-believers in electrification been so wide. Still, only 1% of today’s EV drivers want to return to a pure ICE car, and 4% would switch back to a plug-in hybrid.

According to a new study among 23,000 EV drivers from 18 countries, published by the Global EV Alliance, a grassroots non-profit network of 64 national electric vehicle driver’s associations from 38 countries, representing 336,000 EV drivers. However, another survey shows that in Germany, one in three e-car drivers (34%) now return to the combustion engine.

Exaggerated reports about decline?

Results in major markets worldwide, including the US, India, and Brazil, next to Europe, where EV acceptance is higher, show that 92% intend to repurchase a zero-emission EV for their next car.

“These results confirm that EV drivers are highly satisfied with their choice and that reports of declining EV popularity are greatly exaggerated,” says Petter Haugneland, Assistant Secretary General of The Norwegian EV Association. Norway, of course, is Europe’s zero-emission Walhalla, with more electric cars than gasoline vehicles being driven daily.

The survey also asked respondents why they chose an EV. The main advantages cited were lower operating costs, being more climate-friendly, and the benefit of silence, a lack of operating noise. 72% said they charged at home, 13% used a public fast charger, and only 7% used public parking AC chargers.

The main disadvantages are ‘poor coverage of fast chargers,’ ‘charging that is still time-consuming,’ and ‘irritation about chargers not working properly.’ However, an amazingly high number see ‘no disadvantages’ in having an EV.

In the GEVA survey, Germans are the least worried about the range their EV battery will provide. Nevertheless, ‘range anxiety’ is still one of the main drawbacks heard among those reluctant to switch to an electric car, next to the generally higher purchase price upfront.

So, how do you explain that 34% of German EV drivers want to switch back to an ICE car, as a pure German online survey shows? Private German car drivers have been particularly reluctant to go electric after the state purchase premium was scrapped at the end of 2023.

Until the end of 2022, the motto was essential: “Once an electric car—always an electric car,” says the German insurer HUK-Coburg after conducting an online survey in August 2024, in which 4,147 people participated. Until then, 90% remained ‘loyal’ to the electric car.

But nowadays, less than four percent of all cases (3.6%) involve private individuals with internal combustion engines (gasoline, diesel, gas, etc.) switching to pure electric cars. Even those who did go electric believe it wasn’t an unqualified success, as more than a third (34%) of previous e-drivers returned to the combustion engine when changing their vehicle in 2024.

World’s first hybrid ever was a ‘Porsche’

One could wonder how many of these ICE-loving Germans know that one of their most iconic car designers, Ferdinand Porsche, started his career designing battery electric cars in 1898 and presented the world’s first-ever hybrid vehicle in 1901.

The first-ever Porsche-designed electric car, the Egger-Lohner C. 2 Phaeton, was revealed to the public in 1898 while he was working for the Vereinigte Elektrizitäts-AG Béla Egger in Vienna. It had an octagonal electric motor that produced up to five horsepower, a top speed of 35km/hour, and a range of around 80 km.

Two years later, while working with the Vienna-based Hofwagenfabrik Ludwig Lohner & Co, Ferdinand designed the world’s first-ever hybrid car—the ‘Semper Vivus.’ That was launched as the production-ready Lohner-Porsche ‘Mixte.’ Its combustion engine acted as a generator to send electricity to the wheel hubs to drive the car.

The Lohner-Porsche remained the last Porsche-designed electrified car for over a century until the Porsche Cayenne S Hybrid was introduced in 2010. Another 14 years later, Porsche reluctantly followed the path of going electric but remains one of the fiercest advocates for keeping the combusting engine alive, using e-fuels as an alternative.