User habits of electric vehicles in Finland

User habits of electric cars were investigated in a survey conducted as a postal and online questionnaire, in which a sample of 5,000 rechargeable car owners was randomly selected. The data were collected in October, November and December 2019. The response rate to the survey was 44%.

Rechargeable cars are relatively young, as their number has increased especially between 2018 and 2019. The average age of the cars in the sample was just under 2 years. A BEV was most often purchased to replace a gasoline car, while a plug-in hybrid (PHEV) was most often used to replace a diesel car in a household. The households of owners of electric cars differ from the user base of internal combustion engine cars in terms of, among other things, age distribution, car ownership, regional location and type of dwelling. Households with elcetric cars have often more than one car. About 60 percent of those living in BEV households have another car in addition to the electric car, most typically gasoline-powered. More than half of households with a PHEV have another car in their household.

Based on the results, the households purchasing a BEV already has some experience of chargeable cars. About two-thirds of owners of electric cars live in a detached house, where charging is usually feasible at moderate additional costs. The main reasons for purchasing a electric car were low emissions and the ability to charge the car at home. The possibility of  charging at home limits the purchase of an electric car - about 90 per cent of those who purchase an electric car consider the possibility of home charging an important criterion for their choice.

Electric cars have a relatively high mileage, for BEV the average is 23,000 km per year, and for PHEV about 19,000 km a year. Mileage is higher than that of petrol cars of the same age, but lower than that of diesel cars.

The electric range of PHEVs averaged 30 kilometers in winter conditions and 39 kilometers in other seasons. The range of PHEV's launched in 2019–2020 is typically 50–60 kilometers, as the battery capacity of the new hybrid models is clearly higher than previous model generations. Thus, in the future, the growth of the operating distance will also clearly increase the share of electric driving in the driving kilometers of rechargeable hybrids.

Electric driving of PHEVs accounted for 53 percent of the total mileage. The relative share of electric driving decreases according to annual mileage. Those living in detached houses, who mainly have a good opportunity to charge the car at home, had a higher share of electric driving than those living in apartment buildings.

Nearly 85 percent of owners of PHEVs charge their cars at home at least three times a week, and more than 70 percent charge their cars daily. With BEVs, the share of those charging at least three times a week is about 60 percent. BEVs are charged less frequently than PHEVs, as their range is of usually sufficient for several days. Nearly a third of drivers of PHEVs and about a fifth of BEV owners charge their car daily or almost daily at work. For most owners of electric cars, charging at home and at work are mostly sufficient for daily driving trips. Charging at shops and other commercial premises outlets is not very common. Charging points in public car parks and service stations are still rarely used.

Users of electric cars assessed that the payment systems of charging, the availabiliy of the public charging point network, especially along the main road network and the improvement of home charging options need to be developed. The primary wish of BEV users is to build fast charging stations so that even long distances would be effortless to do with an electric car.