Electric car owners unlikely to go back to petrol

Electric cars are tightening their grip on the UK market, with more than half of Nissan Leaf owners saying they would never go back to buying a conventional vehicle.

Of the 6,500 Leaf owners who took part in the survey survey, 95% said they would recommend the popular electric model to a friend whilst over half said they found it better to drive than a car with a petrol or diesel engine.

Over 90% of those surveyed also professed to using the Leaf as their main family car, with most citing the significant savings involved in running the electric model, such as a lack of road tax and free, public charging points as the main reason behind their choice to switch.

The comments are sure to prove encouraging to the Japanese car giant and its flagship green vehicle, coming as the result of Nissan’s first in-depth survey of its UK electric car customer base.

Nissan Motor GB Limited Managing Director, James Wright, said: “We were the first to bring a mass-produced electric car to market, so it stands to reason that we are also the first to prove the genuine viability of electric motoring.

“Electric car ownership was a big step for motorists to take when we launched the Leaf in 2011 but we are now seeing that owners who were bold enough to take that step are reaping the benefits.

“The issues that the naysayers said would hinder ownership have not materialised and, in fact, the feeling from Leaf owners is that they would never go back to a traditional combustion engine.”

Recent sales of electric cars have seen huge upturns. In September 2014 Nissan sold 851 Leafs; the most ever sold in one month in a European market. More than 3,600 units have been sold in Britain this year.