Automotive News Europe — 2025-06-17
Automotive Industry
Drivers are becoming more reluctant to switch to electric vehicles from combustion engines and the trend is more pronounced in Europe than in the United States, a survey published by Shell showed.
The main obstacle is cost, according to the survey of 15,000 drivers across the world, including Britain, China, Germany and the U.S.
“Europe surprised us,” said David Bunch, Shell’s chief for mobility and convenience. “The single biggest barrier to entry is the cost of the vehicle. Range anxiety is still there but it’s diminishing.”
Electric vehicles are on average up to 30 percent more expensive than internal combustion engine cars.
This year, 41 percent of respondents in Europe said they would consider switching to an electric car compared with 48 percent last year, while in the U.S. the number fell three percentage points to 31 percent, the survey showed.
In terms of the pace at which the charging experience is improving, only about half of European drivers said public charging had improved in the last year, below China’s 74 percent and 80 percent in the U.S.
Only 17 percent of European drivers asked said public charging offered value for money, compared with 69 percent in China and 71 percent in the U.S.
Shell runs 75,000 charging points and focuses its EV strategy on fast, on-the-go charging points rather than home-charging. Its core EV markets are China, Britain, Germany, Switzerland, Singapore, the Netherlands and the U.S.