“A significant contradiction is highlighted here between consumer opinion and political inertia,” says George Hutchinson, Managing Director and Chair of, Public Affairs Practice, B-M UK. “Despite transport experts claiming PAYD is a political impossibility due to the dangers of unsettling the motorist electorate, the public we interviewed say clearly it’s an option that they would consider and that they regard as fair.”
Industry leaders were also asked how long it would take for the electric car to account for 20 percent of personal transport, where their responses were split. 39 percent argued it would only take 5 to 15 years for this to be achieved, but 39 percent felt that it would go beyond 2026 with 9 percent believing the electric car may never become a popular or viable consumer choice. Moreover, even those who responded positively noted that the electric car currently had severe limitations that would need to be overcome for uptake to be truly widespread, including:
• Policy; expert respondents noted that the Government needs to have a clear and holistic policy for promoting the electric car
• Infrastructure; industry respondents noted that without the necessary charging infrastructure in place the take up of electric cars will be slow
• Technology; many industry panellists believe that the technology has a long way to go before it becomes commercially viable, raising particular concerns about the ability of the electric car to travel long distances
Other roadblocks on the way to the electric cars’ success are highlighted. Despite nearly half of consumers seeing electric cars as having no, or almost no, environmental impact, this was an assertion strongly questioned by industry leaders. Overwhelmingly, three out of four industry respondents argued that the electric car is only as green as the electricity it is powered by.
“It is clear that the road to electric car dominance is not going to be straight,” says Hutchinson. “Industry and policy makers will need to act if electric car usage is to live up to consumer expectation in terms of its green credentials and the infrastructure needed for them operate at maximum capacity.”
Other key findings from the study include:
• 71 percent of consumers favoured vehicles that cause more pollution paying more to use the roads
• 68 percent of transport industry leaders believe the London Congestion Charge has been a success
• More than three-quarters (76 percent) of the transport experts felt that fuel duty had no impact on driving behaviour with just 11 percent stating that it had a marginal effect and no-one seeing its effect as significant