Opinion on the disadvantages of electric cars in Italy 2018, by reason

According to a survey conducted in 2018, range anxiety was the main factor refraining Italians from buying more electric vehicles (EVs). In fact, six in ten respondents thought that finding charging points for electric cars was difficult. Another 60 percent of respondents feared running out of charge. Price did not seem to be a decisive factor: only 13 percent of respondents were concerned about that. Overall, only around one in ten respondents thought that electric vehicles had no weaknesses whatsoever.

A European comparison

Looking at the market share of electric vehicles in 2018, Italy lagged well behind other European countries like Norway and Iceland. That year, battery electric vehicles accounted for only 0.3 percent of the newly registered vehicles in the country. Excluding the Nordic countries, which were a special case in the European scenario, Italy’s figure was still a third of the market share of battery EVs in Germany and France. In these countries, electric cars accounted for one percent and 1.3 percent of the total registrations, respectively.

More efforts seem required

Between 2015 and 2019, the number of public normal charging points nearly doubled in Italy, passing from 1,679 units to 3,031 units. Similarly, the number of fast charging points doubled between 2016 and 2019, reaching 808 units. Despite the recent efforts to increase the availability of charging stations in the road network, more effort will be needed before Italians will feel safe using EVs for long-distance travel. In fact, the density of fast charging points on the highway network remained rather low: only 12 charging points every 100 kilometers. This was roughly two times lower than the European average of 37 charging points per 100 kilometers. Italians’ electric car anxieties, at least for the moment, remain well-founded.