Survey: Slovaks Expect Most from Electric Cars among 28 Countries

Bratislava, 7 February (TASR) - Consumer expectations of electric vehicles (EVs) vary across different regions of the world, with Slovaks looking for the highest driving range and charging speed, according to the eReadiness Report 2025 prepared by PwC, which examined attitude towards EVs and plug-in hybrids on a sample of 18,000 respondents in 28 countries worldwide. While potential buyers in China have no problem waiting up to an hour to charge their car, the global average stands at 35 minutes. As for expected driving range, drivers would be satisfied with 406 kilometres on average, with respondents in Brazil being the least demanding, at 373.3 kilometres. On the other hand, Slovaks rank at the top in both indicators, eyeing on at least 465.4-kilometre driving range and willing to spend only 19.3 minutes charging their EV. As regards overall attitudes towards e-mobility in individual countries, the survey showed that nine out of ten EV owners are satisfied with their current car, while this share comes in at 100 percent in Slovakia, likely due to a smaller sample size. Conversely, nearly one third of EV owners in the EMEA region (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) would switch back to an internal combustion engine, citing insufficient driving range (44 percent of respondents) and higher-than-expected maintenance costs (36 percent) of EVs as the reason. In Slovakia, as many as 56 percent would consider switching back to petrol or diesel. Half of EV owners in Slovakia would be willing to buy a used EV in the future, as compared to 62 percent globally where the average is boosted by countries such as Malaysia, Norway and Hungary with four fifths of respondents willing to buy a used EV. PwC has assessed countries' readiness for e-mobility based on the so-called eReadiness Index, which is calculated using 14 criteria, broken down into four groups covering government incentives, infrastructure, supply and demand. Norway is the global leader, scoring 4.4 points out of 5, followed by Singapore (4.3 points) and the Netherlands (4 points). Slovakia ranks at the bottom with 1.9 points, alongside Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates which are major oil producers with one of the lowest fuel prices in the world. Even though Hungary (2.1), the Czech Republic (2.3) and Poland (2.6) have performed better, the Central and Eastern European region is lagging significantly behind Northern and Western Europe. jrg/am