EV charging is so bleak that some owners are considering going back to gas-powered cars, survey finds

• EV charging is so bad it's driving people back to fossil fuels.
• Lack of charging infrastructure is already a barrier for many would-be EV buyers.

Difficulty charging and other issues are leading some EV buyers to consider switching back to fossil fuels — the latest bad sign for the EV transition.

A recent consumer study conducted by McKinsey found that 46% of US EV owners surveyed said they were likely to switch back to a gas-powered vehicle, compared to a global average of 29% of EV owners who said they would likely switch back to an internal-combustion engine.

Respondents in 9 major countries said the top reason for potentially ditching their EVs was a lack of charging infrastructure, something the US has historically lagged behind other nations in building. Other charging issues high on the list included a lack of charging at home and the impact of long-distance driving.

Range anxiety and access to charging infrastructure have long been considered one of the top barriers to electric vehicle adoption, but the revelation that these same issues may drive current battery-powered car owners back into gas-powered cars is a new blow for the already rocky EV transition.

Despite the challenges facing the segment, EVs accounted for a record 7.6% of all cars sold in the US in 2023 while the number of charging stations hit 61,000. While the rate of growth has slowed, industry experts and executives have said they expect some EV share to grow to 8% in 2024 as new models continue to hit the market, helping to keep their average price falling.

While there are plenty of shoppers interested in an electric vehicle, the options on sale today are often too big, too expensive, or not practical enough to replace a gas-powered car.

Car companies are already scrambling to adjust to a sudden change in the electric vehicle market in order to draw more new customers. The slowdown in electric vehicle sales growth has rocked everyone from Ford to Tesla, denting sales and forcing executives to rethink their long-term plans for electric vehicles.

While the industry has made great strides in electric vehicle range and battery charging times, huge holes in the infrastructure make certain areas nearly impossible to navigate without a gas-powered engine.

McKinsey's study found this issue to be particularly acute in the US, which had the second-highest rate of respondents say they're considering ditching their EV. (In first place was Australia, with 49% of respondents saying they are likely to switch back.)

America's high placement shouldn't come as too much of a surprise. Charging infrastructure here has long been a hot-potato issue, which has held back efforts to build more chargers.

While a push from the automotive industry to fund charging infrastructure has led to a boom in public charging stations in the last two years, these have largely been money-losing ventures.

On the government side, the Biden Administration has set aside $7.5 billion for charging infrastructure with a vow to add 500,000 EV charging stations by 2030. But that effort in reality has played out slowly so far, with only a handful of stations going live since the funding was approved two years ago.

Addressing charging infrastructure is already high on the industry's list of priorities when it comes to removing barriers to adoption, but the fact that it might also drive existing EV owners away only amplifies the issue.

Correction: July 9, 2024 — An earlier version of this story misidentified where respondents who said they were considering switching back to gas-powered cars because of charging issues were located. They were in 9 countries, not only the US.