A study has investigated how often drivers change their vehicle and buy a new one: owners of electric cars change their model more frequently than those using gasoline-powered vehicles. The usage period also varies significantly.
Who studied what exactly? The company S&P Global, specializing in economic analysis, has looked into how regularly people buy a new car and remain loyal to their old one. S&P Global found that buyers of electric cars change their vehicle significantly more often.
Drivers remain loyal to their gasoline cars longer than to electric cars
This is what the study found: S&P Global’s study was conducted in the USA, where the car plays a central role in daily life, and found that drivers keep their vehicles longer than before – a trend particularly noticeable among combustion engine models. The figures are still from 2023:
- On average, a vehicle is kept for 12.5 years. For private vehicles (excluding commercial vehicles), the figure even rises to 13.6 years. Only then is a new vehicle purchased.
- The average age of battery electric vehicles (abbreviated as BEV in English) in the USA is, however, 3.6 years and has remained roughly the same over the past years (since 2017).
- Furthermore, individuals who have once purchased an electric car generally stay with electric cars and almost never switch back to gasoline vehicles when they buy a new model.
It is also interesting to see that the average lifespan of vehicles is increasing, mainly due to a slowdown in new car sales. In 2022, additional reasons emerged for keeping vehicles longer:
- Supply difficulties with various manufacturers
- Declining demand against the backdrop of slowed inflation and falling interest rates.
Another side effect: the number of vehicles sold has fallen to the lowest level in over a decade. The sale of Light Vehicles
in the USA decreased by 8%. All vehicles under 3.5 tons are considered Light Vehicles
.
The sale of new vehicles consequently dropped by 8% compared to the previous year, reaching the lowest level in over ten years with 13.9 million units sold versus 14.6 million in 2021. However, in 2024, sales figures have risen again to 15.8 million (via statista.com)
With the introduction of the world’s strictest safety standards for electric car batteries, China is making a statement for more safety in road traffic. From mid-2026, batteries must neither catch fire nor explode: China has just solved one of the biggest problems of electric cars by bringing batteries to market that are guaranteed not to catch fire or explode
