The electric vehicle market is now at one of its significant turning points. After several years of tremendous demand, the kind that drove the manufacturers to fill their showrooms with electric cars, the demand in the world moderates and slows down, many of them are thinking of a new course and we see the results of this in cases such as a change in goals for a transition to full electric drive at Mercedes, the wave of layoffs at Tesla, The price wars of the Chinese manufacturers and regulations of countries that reset the target year for the transition to full electric drive.
The Ministry of Energy in Israel is also currently involved in the goal of marking the year 2030 as the year in which the sale of vehicles with internal combustion engines in the local market will cease. That doesn't mean there won't be more cars like this, but at least according to his plans, they won't be sold as new. Realistic or not? That's a discussion for another time. But what is happening in the meantime is a move to encourage consumers to switch to this drive, either through encouraging lower purchase taxes or through advertising means that emphasize the contribution of these cars to the environment. However, between these two, it is quite clear who is a more influential factor on the consumers' decisions. This is also the conclusion of a new study by Ben Gurion University.
The study was supported by the Chief Scientist Fund of the Ministry of Energy and was conducted by Prof. Ofir Rubin, Dr. Stav Rosenzweig and research student Gal Scarlett, whose thesis it was based on. It examined "the effects of cognitive bias and manipulations that can be exerted on consumers in order to influence Their decision", and in non-academic Hebrew: how to convince people to buy an electric car. The method: the savings label and the pollutant emissions of an electric car compared to a gasoline car.
The research was carried out in April 2023 online and 1,374 people, with driver's licenses, who were a representative sample of the population in Israel, participated in it. The first, two weeks before the experiment itself, the participants were asked to declare their willingness to switch to an electric car, or in the research formulation: "What is the chance that the next time you buy a private car that you own, it will be electric?".
In the experiment itself, the subjects were divided into 6 groups, where each of them was exposed to a different label in which the data concerning an electric vehicle was presented. Two labels were designed to highlight spending, two highlighted savings, one presented data graphically and one served as a control group and presented basic information. After showing the labels, the participants were asked to indicate again their willingness to purchase an electric vehicle. The goal again, was to check which data presentation had a more significant effect; "savings" or "spending", and the contribution of the data display graphically.
The research data proved that there is a clear relationship between the intention to purchase an electric car before and after the research, and that those who had previously experienced using an electric car showed a higher willingness to continue doing so. Conversely, in households that have or had hybrid or plug-in hybrid cars, willingness was lower. That is, the ability of an electric car to "convert" users of regular engines is higher compared to those who are already saving money with plug-in or hybrid cars. Other characteristics indicated that the buyer of the electric car is mostly a man and the owners of households with children.
Regarding the presentation of the data, the study shows that presenting the financial issue as "expense" rather than "saving" has a greater impact on the willingness to switch to an electric car. For example, a breakdown of the monthly and total expense for three years of car maintenance in relation to an equivalent gasoline vehicle. On the other hand, labels that emphasized savings had less impact. Bottom line - the researched responded more to the label that shows them how much they will "lose" than how much they will "gain" from the transition.
"According to the data that came out in the study, we would recommend that the policy makers think about designing new labels and use them as part of a package of steps to accelerate the transition to electric vehicles," says Dr. Rosenzweig, "It is important to deal intelligently with cognitive barriers in the decision-making of customers in Israel, and it is possible to do so Using tools from the field of behavioral economics."
Prof. Ofir Rubin further added, "At a time when only alternative drive cars will be allowed to enter Israel, further thought will be required regarding the transition from the scale that was introduced in 2009 (the green score - K.C.), to a scale that is suitable for a market where there is only Alternative drive vehicles".
As of today, a number of manufacturers and importers did not wait for such a study, and indeed resort to the method of presenting the differences in electric vehicle maintenance compared to gasoline cars. Geely is one of them, with Lubinski the importer of MG electric cars and the Stellentis group this has been done in the past and also on Tesla's website the gap between the predicted maintenance of a gasoline car compared to an electric car is calculated. However, both with them and in the data presented in the study, things are not done on an individual level according to user profile and model, but as an assessment only.
In the bottom line, in light of the changes in taxation that are currently following one path of a consistent climb to a comparison with the taxation of a normal car, with the possibility of canceling the discount in the license fee and with the plan to incorporate a mileage tax calculated by km in electric cars, for more and more people the total bill, which by and large still leans towards the car The tram - no longer completely distinct.