With the Autumn Budget landing this week, a lot of attention is on what it might mean for drivers, and particularly for anyone weighing up whether to go electric. A new survey of 1,500 UK drivers, carried out by road safety technology firm OOONO ahead of the Budget, gives a useful snapshot of what would actually move people from “thinking about it” to “doing it.”
The headline figure is that 61% of drivers said they’d consider buying an electric car sooner than planned if the government added the right financial incentives, building on schemes like the existing Electric Car Grant for EVs priced under £37,000. Of that group, around a fifth said they’d definitely bring their purchase forward, while the rest said it would probably make a difference. A further one in ten said they were already planning an EV purchase regardless.
Interestingly, the survey also asked what size of incentive would actually tip the balance, and the answer clustered around £1,001 to £2,000. That’s a useful number for anyone trying to understand what’s realistic from a policy point of view, and it suggests drivers aren’t necessarily expecting huge sums, just enough to make the switch feel worthwhile.
There was a clear generational split too. Younger drivers, those between 18 and 34, were far more likely to say an incentive would speed up their decision, with nearly three in ten saying they’d definitely act sooner. Among drivers 65 and over, that figure dropped to one in ten. It’s a reminder that enthusiasm for going electric isn’t evenly spread across age groups, and that younger drivers may be more price-sensitive, or simply earlier in their car-buying journey, than older ones.
So what’s actually putting people off right now? Cheaper public charging came out as the single thing drivers most wanted to see addressed in the Budget. Close behind that, nearly half of respondents pointed to high upfront purchase prices as a barrier, and four in ten specifically flagged public charging infrastructure as a concern, whether that’s availability, reliability, or cost. None of this will be a surprise to anyone who’s looked at an EV and then quietly talked themselves out of it over the numbers, but it’s useful to see it laid out clearly.
It’s worth saying that nobody can predict exactly what the Chancellor will announce, and Budgets have a habit of including surprises in both directions. But this survey is a decent indicator of where driver sentiment currently sits: broadly open to going electric, provided the costs stack up, and increasingly aware that charging costs and availability matter just as much as the price of the car itself.
If you’re currently weighing up a new car and electric is on your list, it might be worth holding off on any final decision until the dust settles from this week’s announcement, just in case something changes the maths in your favour. Either way, it’s clear a lot of UK drivers are closer to making the switch than you might think, they’re just waiting for the right nudge.