Barriers to adopting electric vehicles decreasing
Businesses believe barriers to adopting electric vehicles are decreasing, according to the latest monthly electric vehicle (EV) barometer from Europcar Mobility Group UK.
It considered business sentiment in the first half of the year compared to the same period in 2024.
The analysis found that this 31% said EV infrastructure was a barrier compared to 40% last year, while those who thought there were a lack of suitable models fell from 19% to 14% and those who said a lack of knowledge was holding them back dropped from 22% in 2024 to 17%.
However, employer/employee resistance to switching to EVs rose from 12.8% to 13.4%.
A long way to go
Tom Middleditch, head of electric mobility and sustainability spokesperson at Europcar, said: “It is always encouraging to see sentiment moving in the right direction amongst business drivers, but the shift is marginal. There is still a long way to go before businesses will feel confident to make the switch to EVs.
“More government support will be vital for getting businesses and employers on side in the coming years as we approach the end of the line for new petrol and diesel vehicles.”
He added: “The ZEV Mandate is pushing manufacturers to increase the proportion of electric vehicles they produce within the next few years, which should help further reduce the vehicle availability barrier.
“That could be why our latest barometer shows such promising results, so it will be interesting to see if the impact can be seen more clearly later in the year. However, the ZEV Mandate changes could mean there is less urgency for fleets to make the switch as they have more time.”
