The latest industry figures show an acceleration in the roll out of electric and hybrid vehicles.
Helped by the launch of electric vehicle only E-Car club, the trial of the Vauxhall Ampera by Zipcar, the continued expansion of City Car Club’s hybrid fleet and further expansion of trials of EVs in car clubs by Co-Wheels has driven this progress.
The Carplus Annual Survey, released today, is the most comprehensive dataset collected across the car club sector on an annual basis since 2007.
In the survey, car club members were asked about their use of electric and hybrid car club vehicles. Around one in five members had tried either an electric or hybrid car club vehicle. Of those who had experienced these vehicles over three quarters had a “good” or “very good” experience. This indicates that car clubs are a successful and potential way of introducing new technologies to the public.
In addition, over 60% of respondents were “interested” or “very interested” in using an electric car club vehicle. This indicates that car club members are receptive to trying new technologies.
The report found that whilst financial and operational barriers to widespread adoption of electric and hybrid vehicles as part of the car club fleet do still exist, there is growing market interest making it more feasible to expand provision.
Encouragingly, the average carbon emissions of the car club fleets in England and Wales continue to decline. In 2013/14 they were 33% lower than the national average car and 17% lower than the car club fleet average reported in 2011.
Carplus
