The Scottish Household Survey 2019: Transport Scotland

The number of people in Scotland willing to buy an electric car has risen for a second consecutive year, a new survey suggests.

Conducted annually since 1999, the Scottish Household Survey (SHS) samples views on personal travel, including motor vehicles, walking and cycling. The 2018 SHS received around 9,700 responses.

Nearly half (44%) said they would consider buying an electric car or van in the future, up from 41% in 2017 and 36% in 2016.

For people who had bought or would consider buying a plug-in electric vehicle, the main reasons were environmentally friendliness (68%) and fuel or running costs (58%).

On the flip side, ‘range anxiety’ was the main thing putting people off electric cars (46%), followed by the availability or convenience of charging points (41%).

The percentage of people who own an electric car has risen from 0.7% in 2017 to 1.8% in 2018.

Meanwhile, analysis of the trips that people made in 2018 found that over half of journeys in Scotland (53%) were made by car or van.

Increasingly, drivers reported being alone in their vehicles, with the proportion of car trips that were ‘single-occupant’ rising from 56% in 1999 to 66% in 2018.

Walking was the next most popular mode of transport in 2018, accounting for 20% of journeys – although this has dropped from 26% in 2012.

Cycling accounted for 1.4% of journeys – down slightly from 1.5% in 2017.

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