Only 12% of EV owners consider going back to gasoline

Once car shoppers get an electric vehicle, the odds are very low of them returning to any kind of model that relies on a gas pump. 

That’s one of the conclusions of J.D. Power’s 2025 U.S. Electric Vehicle Experience Ownership Study, which asked 6,164 owners of EVs and plug-in hybrids from model years 2024 and 2025 about their first year of ownership. Those respondents were surveyed from August through December 2024.

Of the EV owners surveyed, 94% said they were likely to consider purchasing another EV as their next car. And only 12% said they were likely to consider replacing their EV with a vehicle with an internal-combustion engine—including a hybrid or plug-in hybrid.

2025 Ford Mustang Mach-E (Premium with Sport Appearance Package)

Overall, despite all the policy and messaging suggesting a pivot away from EVs, the study found EV satisfaction on the upswing, after two years in which owners were particularly unhappy with areas including the tech and interface, and public charging.

Among mass-market EV owners, satisfaction was up 86 points year over year, to 725 points on a scale of 1,000. J.D. Power attributes that to continued charging infrastructure buildout and the number of EV brands embracing the NACS charging standard and giving their customers access to the Tesla Supercharger network.

The study also showed greater satisfaction among plug-in hybrid owners. The average score for premium plug-in hybrids—a new subset considered in this year’s study—was 741, higher than mass-market EVs, and only 15 index points lower than premium EVs. That’s a significant improvement in the overall picture for plug-in hybrids compared to previous J.D. Power studies.

2025 Kia Niro EV

The shift away from Tesla is skewing sales results that otherwise show significant gains among EV sales for most other brands, and despite Tesla’s nosedive, overall EV sales may gain 3% of market share this year.

In places like Florida or Texas, whether those states have favorable EV policy or not, this very high rate of owners looking to trade in for another EV is especially good news.