Battery Vehicle Society

Hello All

Further to the online survey I have been running for the past few weeks, I thought that some of you would be interested in the findings. The survey was available here, and also on Reva Car Club website and was also pinged round one of the Yahoo EV groups, as well as being available publically through the survey website. The survey was filled in by twenty people (which is actually less than have taken part in my more time-consuming interview and visits) and the preliminary findings are as follows -

1. Three-quarters of those who filled in the survey were part of a multi car household, where their transport mode options included one electric car or a plug-in hybrid car and at least one other petrol/diesel or hybrid car.
2. Half of the respondents said they plug the vehicle in on returning home and the vehicle starts to charge immediately. One-quarter have a timer to delay recharging, with one-tenth saying they manually delay recharging.
3. Nearly half of respondents recharge their vehicle regardless of whether they are planning on making a journey in the near future.
4. More than half of respondents say they can recharge at work, and one-tenth of respondents are unable to recharge at their workplace.
5. Five respondents said they only recharge if the batteries drop below a certain level. This ranged from 80% down to 45%
6. Four-fifths of respondents agreed that a visible public recharging infrastructure would encourage EV adoption, but just over half agreed that the infrastructure would be well used.
7. Four-fifths of respondents agreed that more recharging infrastructure would encourage them to take more journeys in the EV, and to go further in the EV.
8. Over two-thirds of respondents did not agree that the EV recharging facilities were available and that it was more a case of lack of publicity. Only one-tenth agreed that the facilities are there but they need better publicity.
9. One-half of respondents agreed that their EV was able to fulfil all their needs without recharging, and the other half disagreed.
10. Four-fifths of respondents agreed that if they were faced with a longer journey, currently they would take another vehicle.
11. All respondents agreed there was a way of driving their EV which maximised its efficiency, though not all respondents agreed that they do this regularly (35% strongly agreed, and 55% agreed).
12. Nearly all respondents agreed that they make use of the regenerative braking.
13. Over two-thirds of respondents agreed that they drive the EV more cautiously than other vehicles they have/have had.
14. Over 90% of respondents agreed that it is easy to learn how to drive in a way that optimises the efficiency.
15. Over two-thirds of respondents agreed that they are concerned about climate change, and around the same proportion agree they do all they can to reduce their carbon footprint, though not as strongly.
16. One-fifth of respondents say they believe in fate.
17. Only one respondent agreed they like being the same as other people, with four-fifths of respondents saying they would disagree.
18. Almost all respondents agreed that they use the internet and email a lot, though this may show a sample-bias in the survey method.
19. Over four-fifths of respondents agreed that they like technology, though again this may show a sample-bias in the survey method.
20. Nobody disagreed with the statement ‘I don’t care what others think of me’. Over 90% of respondents agreed, with the remainder neither agreeing or disagreeing.
21. Over four-fifths of respondents said they were able to manage their own working pattern to an extent.
22. One-third of respondents are on a variable rate tariff such as Economy 7.
23. One-half of respondents are on a green tariff.
24. One-tenth of respondents micro-generate and are on a feed-in tariff.
25. Over one-half of respondents have a ‘car-puter’ or a lap-top to plug in to the car.
26. Three-quarters of respondents say they can change their batteries in their EV.
27. All respondents can top-up the batteries in their EV.
28. Only one of the respondents said that someone else introduced them to EVs.
29. Over one-half of the respondents keep a diary for dates and appointments.
30. All of the respondents who stated their gender are male. The respondents ranged in age from 21 and 70 years, with one-half being between 41 and 50 years.

What do you all think? Looking at the findings, although the number of responses was quite low, they seem to tally quite a lot with what I have been finding in the real world. I wasn't surprised by much, which is good because it means I'm going in the right direction with you all!

Feedback and (constructive) critisism welcome.

Yep I recon thats about what I would expect to see in the current EV climate.

Until EV's become more "main stream" the results you have are what I would expect, they are still the vehicle mainly of hobbists and the more quirky type of owner

I'm not saying anything about myself

ChrisB

I agree that's pretty representative of what's out there at the moment. I think anyone studying electric cars over the next few years won't have half as much fun as I've had the last few months. Quirky is good for me - I'm hardly mainstream myself, thank goodness!