Yes, consumer interest in EVs has recently cooled from red hot to reasonably warm, according to a pair of surveys.that “56 per cent of car shoppers who do not own an EV are open to purchasing one for their next vehicle, down from 68 per cent the year prior.” Similarly, J.D. Power’s 2023found, “overall EV consideration in Canada has declined 13 percentage points to 34 per cent from 47 per cent in 2022.
More illuminating were the top reasons Canadians gave in that survey for not considering an EV. They were: vehicle prices ,Let’s consider why: EVs are pricier up front than conventional cars and 8-per-cent finance rates only exacerbate the problem. In other words, if you want a luxury EV, you might be able to drive it off the lot that day. If you want a base-level EV by a mainstream brand, well, you’d better hope your current car will last a while.“For all the headlines written in the last six months about how EV demand is faltering, the data definitely doesn’t support that, or at least not yet,” wrote Colin McKerracher, head of advanced transport at BloombergNEF and co-author of its latest annual Zero Emissions Vehicles Factbook.