In Germany, the electric car is mainly bought by young rural people
What is the profile of plug-in vehicle customers (hybrid and electric)? According to a recent barometer, these are mainly wealthy households, living above the average level, and... rural. Who...
15/02/2022
What is the profile of plug-in vehicle customers (hybrid and electric)? According to a recent barometer, these are mainly wealthy households, living above the average level, and... rural.
Who really buys plug-in cars across the Rhine, in one of the biggest markets in terms of volume, as in size of the high-end segment? The KFW study (which covers 4,000 households) is interesting. It shows that a large part of the people who buy and drive a plug-in vehicle (electric or hybrid) are part of a household with a significantly higher income than the German average. Nothing too surprising when you look at the average price of the offer, in plug-in hybrid as in electric.
But more surprising: while we imagined that it is mainly urban and peri-urban people who buy electric cars, it is in fact rather the opposite. The profile of an electric or plug-in hybrid motorist is as follows: rural, young, and senior executive. The distance from urban areas does not seem to be a problem, while autonomy is often mentioned by those who still have fears about electric mobility. Owning a house with a socket at home to recharge your vehicle is sufficient, public terminals, in particular fast, only being used for longer journeys and departures on vacation.
However, the share of these rechargeable cars on the roads remains very small. If there are 14% of plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles in new registrations in Germany in recent times, in reality, the car fleet only includes 1.3% of vehicles to be charged.