The year 2030. It feels like a date from a sci-fi movie, but it’s creeping up faster than a silent EV in a quiet supermarket car park. It’s the year the UK waves goodbye to new petrol and diesel car sales, a deadline that’s supposed to usher us into a bright, clean, electric future. There’s just one small problem: a huge chunk of us haven’t got the faintest idea what’s going on.
According to a new bit of research from Peugeot UK, a whopping two-fifths of British motorists have rated their own understanding of electric and hybrid vehicles as ‘poor’. In fact, a survey of 2,000 drivers found that 43% admitted their EV knowledge was either ‘poor’ or ‘very poor’, while a confident 23% felt they were ‘good’ or ‘very good’ on the subject. It seems for every one person who can confidently talk about kWh and charging curves, there are two others who think a plug-in hybrid is just an EV with commitment issues (ahem, 21% weren’t sure if they were different).
Despite over 1.5 million electric cars already on UK roads, most drivers are still more comfortable with the devil they know. A solid 61% said their best understanding was still with good old-fashioned petrol or diesel cars, the very things that are being phased out.
The Kids Are Alright (But Their Grandparents Are Confused)
Surprise, surprise, it turns out there’s a massive knowledge gap between the generations. It’s a classic tale of TikTok versus Teletext. Nearly half (49%) of the tech-savvy 25 to 34-year-olds reckon they have a ‘good’ or ‘excellent’ grasp of EVs. Ask the over-65s, however, and that number plummets to a concerning 13%.
This chasm extends to the practical stuff, too. When asked about rapid charging, 49% of the younger group knew you could juice up an EV to 80% in under half an hour. For the over-65s? Only 21% were aware of this modern miracle. It’s the difference between seeing a 30-minute charge as a quick coffee break versus an eternity of watching a battery icon fill with glacial slowness.
The Postcode Lottery of Power
Your EV confidence might just depend on your address. Londoners, constantly navigating the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ), are feeling pretty smug, with 49% rating their knowledge as ‘good’ or ‘excellent’. Head over to the East of England, and that confidence evaporates, with only 12% making the same claim. It seems that being forced to understand what ULEZ is (which 83% of Londoners did) has a knock-on effect of actually learning about the cars that are compliant.
“So Many Apps, So Little Time”
The real confusion, it seems, happens at the plug. A staggering 78% of drivers find the web of different charging providers and their various apps and payment methods confusing. This is a universal point of pain, where you need a half-dozen apps on your phone just to ensure you can get a charge on a long trip, turning a simple refuel into a game of digital roulette.And the speed? The survey found that only 29% of people knew a modern EV could get from 20-80% charge in less than 30 minutes using a 100kW+ rapid charger.
Of course, since Peugeot funded the study, they’re keen to point out they have solutions. They highlight that their E-3008 model can do the 20-80% dash in just 27 minutes and offer things like the PEUGEOT ELECTRIC PROMISE, which includes an 8-year vehicle warranty to soothe those reliability jitters.
Ultimately, the electric switch is coming, whether we’ve done our homework or not. While carmakers are doing their bit, there’s a clear gap in public understanding that needs a serious jolt of electricity. For now, it seems a significant number of us will be pulling up to our first EV charger with the manual in one hand and a hopeful prayer in the other. What could possibly go wrong?
