The EV Index from Sophus3 provides an objective measure of the readiness of the vehicle market to enable and encourage the mainstream adoption of electric vehicles (EVs).
The index is formed from three pillars, each measuring distinct factors that help or hinder electric vehicle acquisition. First of these is the consumer appetite to buy electric, the second is the capability of the automotive companies to supply these cars, and the third is the availability of suitable charging infrastructure.
A score of 100 represents parity in the attractiveness, availability, pricing and usability of an electric car compared with a conventionally fuelled vehicle.
Currently we produce the EV Index for the UK whilst collecting relevant data for the European Big 5 Markets as well as Norway — the ‘best in class’ EV market — to benchmark UK performance
A fuller explanation of the EV Index from Sophus3 can be found here.
It would have been expected that the ongoing impact of the Covid-19 pandemic would have had a negative effect on the EV Index during the second quarter of the year. Lockdowns were in force from mid-March in most European countries and we saw online activity fall on nearly every automotive website as car dealerships closed and consumers had more immediate concerns. Yet the EV Index remained positive with interest in electric car models holding up far better than for ICE vehicles.
The UK enjoyed a strong improvement to the EV Index rising to 38 points, a 19% improvement over the Q1 performance.
The biggest gain was in consumer interest which suggests there was a sizable online audience using lockdown to investigate, amongst other things, the relatively new phenomenon of electric cars. Online search activity around electric cars and increased views of EVs on car brand websites pushed up the measurement of consumer interest by nearly a third against Q1.
The UK index was further boosted by a drop in the market price of EVs against ICE vehicles, arising from the introduction of more keenly priced ‘volume’ models into the UK car market.
There was also a measurable expansion of public charging infrastructure as new charge points came onstream.
Despite the encouraging improvements, the UK has some way still to go, lagging heavily behind Norway, where our more limited data to track online consumer interest still indicates an overall index of 61.