AI is really popular Only 5 percent of US car buyers want an EV, according to survey Almost two thirds of US consumers want internal combustion for their next vehicle. Jonathan M. Gitlin Jan 10, 2025 10:51 am | 43 Credit: Getty Images Credit: Getty Images Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreOnly 5 percent of US consumers want their next vehicle to be a battery electric vehicle, according to a new survey by Deloitte. The consulting company gathered data from more than 31,000 people across 30 countries as part of its 2025 Global Automotive Consumer Study, and some of the results are rather interesting, as they pertain to technologies like new powertrains, connectivity, and artificial intelligence.Among US consumers, internal combustion engines (ICE) remain number one, with 62 percent indicating that their next car will not be electrified. Another one in five would like a hybrid for their next vehicle, with a further six percent desiring a plug-in hybrid. (The remaining survey respondents either did not know or wanted some other powertrain option.)By contrast, only 38 percent of Chinese consumers want to stick with ICE; meanwhile, 27 percent of them want a BEV next. That's a far higher percentage than in other large nationsin Germany, only 14 percent want a BEV; in the UK and Canada, only eight percent are BEV-bound; and in Japan, the number is a mere 3 percent.Meanwhile, hybrids are far more attractive to consumers in most countries. While only 16 percent of Chinese and 12 percent of German consumers indicated this preference, 23 percent of Canadians, 24 percent of UK consumers, and 35 percent of Japanese consumers replied that they were looking for a hybrid for their next car.Deloitte suspects that some of this reticence toward BEVs "could be due, in part, to lingering affordability concerns." The hoped-for parity in the cost of a BEV powertrain and an ICE powertrain has still not arrived, and fully 45 percent of US consumers said they did not want to pay more than $34,999 for their next car (11 percent said less than $15,000, 9 percent said $15,000$19,999, and the remaining 25 percent said $20,000$34,999.)Why the reticence?Despite popular sentiment, there are actually quite a few electric vehicles available for much less than the average new vehicle price of $47,000. But other than the Nissan Leaf, all of them have prices starting with a "3." (Meanwhile, 75 percent of car buyers in the US buy used cars, and the transition to electrification will not change that underlying reality.)In fact, rangeor the perceived lack thereofremains a greater problem for EV adoption than purchase prices. Just 49 percent of US consumers listed range as an impediment, with 46 percent indicating charging times and 44 percent listing price. (Survey respondents could give more than one reason.) Similarly, UK consumers were slightly more concerned about range (52 percent) than price (49 percent), with similar results in Germany (54 percent range, 45 percent price).Interestingly, the price of an EV was not one of the more commonly cited deterrents in China (22 percent) or Korea (24 percent); in both these countries, cold-weather performance and the reduction in range in cold temperatures was cited as more important (China, 37 percent; Korea, 38 percent).Why an EV?Deloitte also surveyed consumers about their reasons for wanting or not wanting an EV. In the US, "lower fuel costs" was the number one reason for wanting an EV at 56 percent. Forty-four percent are also motivated by concern for the environment and 36 percent by the driving experience. Indeed, the easiest way to convert someone to wanting an EV is by giving them a short test drive, where the advantages of electric propulsion become apparent.Those three reasons were pretty consistent across most of the countries in which Deloitte conducted the survey, albeit with slightly different splits. Environmental concerns and lower fuel costs were major factors in every country. Only Germany, where government subsidies just edged out the driving experience, and Korea, where the need for reduced maintenance came third, differed from the herd.A big concern for non-EV drivers pondering or worrying about changing powertrains is the state of public charging infrastructure. This is understandable, if misguidedif one only has experience of vehicles that require refueling with liquid hydrocarbons at a specialized refueling center (i.e., a gas station), it's easy to see how they can't think outside that paradigm.On the other hand, as virtually every EV driver knows, the entire point is to plug in at the end of each day and recharge slowly with cheap electricity, waking up to a fully charged battery. Actually, the people surveyed by Deloitte mostly appear to grasp this concept: 79 percent of US consumers expect to charge an EV at home most often, with just 11 percent expecting to charge at work and only one in 10 indicating public chargers. The splits were basically identical for the UK, although 20 percent of Germans expect to use public charging infrastructure.In Asia, meanwhile, many fewer consumers expect to charge at homeonly 63 percent in China, 62 percent in Southeast Asia, and 61 percent in Korea.Among those who plan to charge at home, many more of them currently have access to a dedicated charger in China (77 percent) than those in the US (40 percent), Germany (37 percent), the UK (33 percent), South-East Asia (32 percent), or Korea, where just 19 percent have access to a dedicated charger (although 50 percent of Korean respondents indicated they had access to a charger shared with neighbors).AI is way more popular than you thinkDeloitte also surveyed consumers on their attitudes toward connected cars and AI, among other new technologies, and the results for US consumers will probably come as a shock to most Ars readers. For example, 45 percent of US consumers indicated that adding AI to a vehicle system was beneficial, with another 29 percent having no particular opinion.And more than one in two US consumers is prepared to pay extra for connected vehicle services if they include warranty or recall notices (51 percent), insurance discounts based on driving data (52 percent), anti-theft tracking (60 percent), automatic detection of vehicles and pedestrians (60 percent), and emergency assistance (62 percent).However, there is little trust among consumers that car companies, car dealers, insurance providers, or connectivity providers deserve their trust when it comes to managing datawith good reason.Jonathan M. GitlinAutomotive EditorJonathan M. GitlinAutomotive Editor Jonathan is the Automotive Editor at Ars Technica. He has a BSc and PhD in Pharmacology. In 2014 he decided to indulge his lifelong passion for the car by leaving the National Human Genome Research Institute and launching Ars Technica's automotive coverage. He lives in Washington, DC. 43 Comments