VW Emissions Scandal: HALF of UK car buyers now want an EV or Hybrid

The fallout from the VW Defeat Device scandal seems to be having a profound effect on UK car buyers, with half now looking for an EV or hybrid.

It’s taken far too many years for the penny to drop, but UK car buyers have finally started to get the message that diesel cars are not the Holy Grail of ‘Green’ motoring, and that most would be better with a petrol, hybrid or even an electric car.

But the fallout from the Volkswagen Defeat Device scam seems to have focussed hearts and minds very quickly, with a new survey – conducted last week – from the Institute of the Motoring Industry (IMI) showing a massive 53 per cent of UK car buyers are now considering buying a hybrid or electric car after the revelations about dirty diesels.

The survey polled 2,000 car owners, and the results are a significant boost to car makers already in the hybrid space – makers like Mitsubishi with the Outlander PHEV, the UK’s best-selling plug-in hybrid – and particularly Toyota, who have focussed their main efforts on hybrids for years, only offering token diesels to help sales.

We don’t seriously expect hybrid and EV sales to suddenly grow in the way this survey suggests (alternatively fuelled cars accounted for just 2 per cent of new car sales in 2014), but hopefully buyers will now look more circumspectly at the default diesel option before parting with their cash.

But the IMI does warn there’s a big shortage of qualified mechanics to work on hybrid and electric cars, with just 2 per cent of qualified mechanics able to do so, and is calling on the government to address the skills gap with a proactive recruitment campaign and licensing for technicians working on electric and hybrid cars.

IMI CEO, Steve Nash, said:

We have always expected demand for electric and hybrid vehicles to increase gradually over time as the cars become more sophisticated and the public become aware of their quality, the level of demand shown in this survey is astonishing and requires a response from Government.

It seems unlikely we’ll suddenly see hybrid and EV sales rocket to 50 per cent of new car sales, but it does seem likely the rate of take-up – and a preference for petrol-engined cars – will now accelerate.