Tuesday 19 April 2011

Americans won’t pay premiums to go electric

A recent survey has found that over half of Americans would not be willing to pay any price premium for an electric vehicle.

Craig Giffi, Vice Chairman at Deloitte LLP said: "For mass adoption, automakers in the U.S. will be challenged to price electric vehicles to meet the expectations of consumers and still make a profit on them,"

"U.S. consumers are not likely to pay any sort of price premium for EVs. Therefore, government incentives are very important to the purchase decision."

78% of consumers in the United States would consider purchasing an EV when fuel prices reach $5.00 per gallon.

A total of 68% of consumers in the U.S. and 57% in China are less likely to consider an EV if they are able to find a traditional car with a fuel efficiency of 50 miles per gallon.

Further, only 8% are willing to pay a price premium of more than $3,000. Those questioned in Europe and China expect to pay significantly less than $20,000 for an electric vehicle.

The Deloitte survey reveals that consumer expectations are two to three times the current market offerings of around 100 miles from major automotive manufacturers.

The survey questioned more than 12,000 consumers across the Americas, Asia and Europe in 17 countries.