US drivers most EV resistant, finds HERE-SBD EV Index Consumer Survey 2025

Drivers in the United States and France are the least likely to consider an EV (electric vehicle) as their next car, while those in the UK and Germany are most likely to make the switch.

The results are from the HERE-SBD EV Index Consumer Survey 2025, designed to better understand how drivers in Europe and the US experience EVs.

The survey captures perspectives of 2,000 drivers—both electric and gasoline vehicle owners—across the US, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, and the UK. It explores their views on EV adoption barriers and motivators, perceptions of the charging infrastructure in their region, and their expectations for and experiences with daily EV journeys.

US non-EV drivers most likely to choose gas next

According to the survey, 57% of US drivers currently driving gas-powered vehicles favor gas for their next vehicle, with only 10% likely to choose a battery electric vehicle (BEV) for their next car. This is in stark contrast to Europe, where 25% of gas-powered car owners report they’re likely to choose a diesel or petrol car next. In Italy, Spain, and France findings indicate that drivers are not ready for fully electric driving. Plug-in-hybrid vehicles are a popular next choice among ICE (internal combustion engine) owners in Italy and Spain, while in France hybrids are a likely next purchase.

The UK and Germany lead the European countries in drivers of ICE vehicles most willing to switch to electric in the future.

When asked if they believe EV sales will exceed 50% by 2030, UK drivers are the most optimistic with more than half responding positively, followed by Spain and Germany at 30% and 28% respectively. In the US, only 24% expect EV sales to exceed 50% market share by 2030. France follows with 23%, while Italy is the least optimistic at 15%.

US and French drivers are also the most negative towards an ICE phase out in the next 10-15 years, with 31% of US respondents saying they don’t think this should happen, while 16% believe it is happening too soon. In France, 17% of respondents don’t think this should happen at all, while a fifth believe an ICE phase out in the next 10-15 years is too soon. This is in stark contrast to the UK, whose drivers are the least resistant, with only 8% believing this is happening too soon, and a further 8% who don’t think it should happen at all. Looking collectively across the EU5, 12% don’t think it should happen at all, while 13% think it’s too soon.

Would drivers choose ICE or EV if spec and price were the same? The US is the only country whose majority of surveyed drivers would continue to purchase a gas car, while the overwhelming majority of drivers polled in the UK (4 out of 5) would choose the EV.

What’s holding drivers back?

Driving the resistance in the US are perceptions around the limited availability of charging stations, insufficient driving range and the cost of charging. Price is also a major factor, with 45% of US respondents citing higher purchase price as a deterrent for choosing an EV over an ICE car.

Drivers surveyed across the five European countries cite short driving range, limited availability of charging stations and the higher purchase price compared to ICE cars as the main barriers to entry.

In fact, driving range is the biggest priority for considering a BEV in all markets polled except the US, though range expectations vary somewhat across markets. The average lowest acceptable EV range across all markets is 360km, with Germany citing optimal range at 466km, and the US 483km. Drivers in France have higher expectations at 500km. Younger buyers as well as current EV drivers have less stringent range expectations than older generations.

Substandard dealer EV education

A lack of education could be fueling this apprehension, with 75% of US respondents claiming their car dealers provided no information on EVs. “It’s quite stark, and it’s important to consider this as a potential reason why adoption isn’t as strong in the US,” said David Ball, senior consultant at SBD Automotive. “It’s possible salespeople aren’t promoting EVs as strongly, as there may not be as much of an incentive for them to sell them.”

Aside from the UK, where only 37% of ICE drivers surveyed claim they didn’t receive any information from the dealer, several other European countries don’t rate well for dealer education either.

“Our survey highlighted a lot of negative sentiment towards BEVs in the US compared to most other European countries. The US is clearly still very anti-EV,” added Ball. “However, in Europe, which is largely positive towards EV adoption, France really stood out as lagging significantly behind its neighbors. That said, the survey did reveal some positive numbers for the US and France as well.”

Survey findings revealed notably that only 5% of current EV drivers in the US wouldn’t choose electric again. In Europe that number rises slightly to 7% – but overall EV penetration is significantly stronger, indicating a more mature and established market. “It's very evident that experience as an EV owner makes a big difference,” said Ball, explaining that the perception of ICE drivers is often different to the reality of the experiences of EV drivers. “We see that satisfaction levels of EV owners are actually very high. The majority of EV owners aren’t reporting a bad experience or the desire to switch back to as vehicles.”

Charging ahead

While charging networks continue to grow in both the US and Europe, the US is expanding more slowly with uneven progress across states. As a result, consumer perceptions vary broadly.

European respondents perceived charging availability as strong, with 63% on average reporting good coverage of public chargers in their areas. This corelates with 245,000 charge points added in the past year in Europe for a 43% year-on-year increase.

Breaking that down, UK respondents have the best perception of public charging availability with 83% reporting good coverage, while only half of Spanish drivers surveyed believe availability is good.

In the US 45% of those surveyed rate charging availability as good, but the results are very state-dependent: At least 70% of drivers in Washington, Maryland and California report good charging coverage. South Carolina, Michigan and Ohio drivers surveyed have much lower opinions of charge point coverage.

With a much smaller network than Europe, the US added 37,000 new chargers for a 19% year-on-year increase, but the focus on installing high speed DC chargers had a significant impact of raising the US’s overall charging power. Between 2024 and 2025, the US saw an average charger power increase from 48 kW to 61 kW.

While half of EV owners surveyed in France and Germany have never encountered a faulty charger, Spanish drivers report the highest incidence of faulty public charging with 47% surveyed reporting multiple or frequent encounters, followed by the UK at 34% and Italy at 33%.

Drivers in the UK are also most willing to wait longer (up to 30 minutes) for charging, while US drivers are the most impatient and would prefer a shorter wait time of up to 20 minutes.

The survey ran a “Max Diff” trade-off exercise to measure the relative importance of EV infrastructure features by asking respondents to pick the most and least important in repeated sets.

“One of the other things that stood out was driver sentiment around real-time charger status,” added Ball. “I think things like this are very important for general user experience even if it’s not necessarily one of the top-ranking features in the list.”

When “hardware” such as standardized charging connectors, fast chargers and secure parking while charging was excluded, software that aids the EV experience becomes important, such as real-time charging session pricing, status updates and dynamic route planning with charging availability. It means drivers can avoid visiting busy charging stations or those that are out of order.

“It's going to mean that when they turn up at that charging station, especially when there are more EVs on the road, they're going to be less frustrated with the experience,” added Ball.

HERE’s EV Routing and Charge Points solutions help ease driver range anxiety by providing information about enroute charging stations, including location, connector types, navigation, and real-time and predicted availability.

Motivation and satisfaction drivers

Environmental factors were cited as the main motivating factor for EV adoption among the five European countries, followed by better value for money and lower running costs. In the US, lower maintenance costs and tax incentives were the main motivators, followed in third place by environmental benefits.

When asked what measures would help boost EV ownership in their regions, US and European respondents again differed. US drivers prioritize more public charging stations, free or discounted public charging, and home charger installation incentives. Among the European five, lower electricity rates was the most important factor, followed by subsidies for EV purchase, and more public charging stations.

Which countries are best and worst for EV adoption and charging infrastructure? Read the HERE-SBD EV Index 2025 here.

Discover how HERE’s suite of tools can help you optimize EV routing and charging.