Official Statistics

National Travel Attitudes Study (NTAS) Wave 9: electric vehicles and charging

Published 18 January 2024

The National Travel Attitudes Study (NTAS) is an online and telephone survey which gathers responses from individuals aged 16 and over in England, drawn from people who have previously responded to the National Travel Survey (NTS).

This release covers Wave 9 of the NTAS, which collected responses from 2,011 individuals between August and September 2023. It is focused on attitudes to zero-emission buses, bus fare caps and bus services, as well as encouragements and barriers to cycling, and attitudes to public electric vehicle charge points.

An ODS table for NTAS wave 9 results is available, containing the underlying data for the questions from the survey.

These are official statistics. For more information, see the About these statistics section in NTAS Wave 9: Methodology and background notes.

Headline figures

In NTAS Wave 9 (2023), of those who said they were planning on buying a new car, 49% said they were planning on buying an ultra-low emission vehicle as their next vehicle

Attitudes towards ultra-low emission cars and public chargepoints

The questions in this section cover the purchase of electric cars, as well as attitudes around availability and suitability of public electric vehicle chargepoints.

Wave 7 of NTAS was dedicated to public attitudes towards ultra-low emission vehicles and government policies relating to them. The results can be found on the release page for NTAS Wave 7. Several of the questions were repeated in wave 9.

Other statistics and research regarding the environment and road transport can be found on Department for Transport road transport and the environment page.

Knowledge of electric cars

Respondents were asked about their knowledge of electric cars. 45% of respondents said they had low to no knowledge (responded 1 to 3, out of 7), compared to the 37% who rated their knowledge high to complete (5, 6 or 7 out of 7). Males were more likely to rate their own knowledge highly (47%, compared to 28% of females), and conversely females were more likely to rate their knowledge towards the low end of the scale (56%, compared to 32% of males).

Finally, those with a higher household income rated their knowledge more favourably compared to those with a lower household income. Of those with a household income over £50,000, 44% rate their knowledge as good to complete (5 to 7), compared to 32% of those with an income less than £15,000.

Chart 13: Self-reported knowledge about electric cars, by selected measures (percentage of respondents)

Measure	Low to no knowledge (1 to 3)	Average knowledge (4)	Good to complete knowledge (5 to 7)	Don’t know	Total
Sex: Male	32	21	47	0	100
Sex: Female	56	15	28	0	100
Ethnic group: White	47	18	35	0	100
Ethnic group: Ethnic minorities (excluding white minorities)	35	16	49	0	100
Household income: Less than £14,999	54	14	32	0	100
Household income: £15,000 to £34,999	47	17	36	0	100
Household income: £35,000 to £49,999	40	23	37	0	100
Household income: £50,000 or more	37	19	44	0	100
All respondents	45	18	37	0	100

Purchasing ultra-low emission vehicles

Ultra-low emission cars or vehicles were defined in the survey as battery electric or plug-in hybrid.

All respondents were asked if they were planning to purchase a new car, and the likelihood of their next car purchase being an ultra-low emission vehicle (ULEV); 16% said that they were not planning on buying a new car in the near future, and 49% said they were planning on buying a ULEV for their next car.

Household income appears to be a large factor. Of those with a household income £50,000 or more, 57% were planning to make a ULEV their next purchase and only 8% were not planning on purchasing a new car. This is also largely the same as individuals in households with an income between £35,000 and £49,999. By contrast however, 41% of those in households with an income of less than £15,000 were likely to make a ULEV their next vehicle, and 29% had no plans to purchase a new car at all.

Chart 14: Likelihood of purchasing a ULEV as their next car (percentage of respondents)

Household income	Likely	Unlikely	I don’t plan to buy a car in the future	Don’t know	Total
14,999 or less	41	30	29	0	100
£15,000 to £34,999	45	39	16	0	100
£35,000 to £49,999	55	35	9	0	100
£50,000 or more	57	35	8	0	100
Don’t know	34	41	25	0	100
All respondents	49	35	16	0	100

Queues for public chargepoints

Of all respondents, 27% agree that most public chargepoints have long queues, an almost even split with the 26% who disagree. This has increased from the 18% who said that most public chargepoints have long queues when asked in the NTAS wave 7 survey (2022).

Of those respondents who agree that public chargepoints have long queues, 46% say they are likely to make their next car purchase a ULEV, and 9% say they don’t plan to buy a new car in the near future. Conversely those who disagree that there are long queues, 55% say they are likely to make their next car purchase a ULEV, and 16% say they don’t plan to buy a new car in the near future.

Chart 15: Likelihood of purchasing a ULEV as their next car, based on the attitude of queues at public chargepoints (percentage of respondents)

“Public chargepoints have long queues”	Likely to make next purchase a ULEV	Unlikely to make next purchase a ULEV	I don’t plan to buy a car in the future	Don’t know	Not applicable	Total
Agree	46	44	9	0	0	100
Neither agree nor disagree	48	35	17	0	0	100
Disagree	55	29	16	0	0	100
Don’t know	37	18	45	0	0	100

Males are more likely to agree that there are long queues at public chargepoints (31%, compared to 23% of females and 27% of all respondents).

32% of individuals who have held a full driving licence for less than 20 years disagree that there are long queues for public chargepoints, compared to only 20% of those who have held a full driving licence for 40 years or more. This could also be a function of age of the individual, as 31% of those aged between 16 and 39 years agree that there are long queues for public chargepoints, compared to 19% of those aged between 60 and 69 years, and 23% of people aged 70 years or more.

41% of respondents from ethnic minority (excluding white minority) backgrounds agree that there are long queues at public chargepoints, compared to 24% of white respondents, and 27% of respondents overall. This opinion does not appear related to the type of area where they live; nearly the same proportion of those who live in rural areas (25%) as those in urban areas (27%) agree that there are long queues.

Accessibility of public chargepoints

When asked if “most public chargepoints for electric vehicles are not accessible to drivers with disabilities”, 24% of people agree and 16% disagree. This is an increase from the 20% who agreed in the 2022 NTAS wave 7 survey. The majority (55%) of people neither agree nor disagree, and 4% say they do not know.

Respondents were asked when they completed the NTS “how is your health in general?” and “do you have any physical or mental health conditions or illnesses lasting or expected to last for 12 months or more”. Of those people who said that their health was very good, 21% agreed that most public chargepoints for electric vehicles are not accessible to drivers with disabilities, compared to 31% of those who rate their health as “fair” to “very bad”. Similarly, 27% of those who said they had a physical or mental health condition or illness lasting or expecting to last for 12 months or more agreed that they are not accessible, compared to 23% of those who say they do not have such a condition.

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Contact details

National Travel Survey statistics

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