Rivian electric truck (Getty Images)
Almost half of current EV drivers in the United States want to switch back to gas-powered vehicles, according to a recent survey.
The report conducted by consulting firm McKinsey & Company showed that 46 percent of American EV drivers are "likely" to return to vehicles powered by internal combustion engines.
Despite Americans’ growing discontent with electric vehicles, President Joe Biden continues to tout his administration's efforts to boost EV production. In March, Biden finalized historic restrictions on gas-powered vehicles, requiring carmakers to increase electric and hybrid vehicle sales by 56 and 13 percent, respectively, by 2032.
The McKinsey survey comes just a month after the Biden administration announced tariffs on $18 billion of Chinese goods, including an increase of 25 to 100 percent on the EV tariff rate, as part of the president’s effort to incentivize "the development of a robust EV market" and protect "investments and jobs from unfairly priced Chinese imports."
Meanwhile in June, several automakers, including General Motors, Ford, and Nissan Motor Co., announced cuts to their EV production in response to a global sales dip. General Motors reduced its initial goal by 50,000 units, Ford announced a temporary suspension of investment requirements for EV infrastructure, while Nissan halted the development of certain battery-powered vehicles.
General Motors CFO Paul Jacobson called the cut in EV production "100 percent demand driven."
"We don’t want to end up in a position where we give out a production target and then we just blindly produce and end up with hundreds of thousands of vehicles in inventory because the market’s just not there yet."
The McKinsey report included 30,000 consumers from the United States, China, Norway, Australia, Italy, France, Japan, and Brazil, and found that 35 percent of all consumers surveyed plan to switch back to gas-powered vehicles due to a lack of charging infrastructure and 34 percent due to higher costs. The report also noted purchase intent for EVs is continuing to rise but at a slower rate than in 2022 and 2021.
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