What Real EV Owners Wish They'd Checked Before Buying

How many EV owners actually regret their purchase? McKinsey’s Mobility Consumer Pulse survey found that 46% of U.S. EV owners said in 2024 they were “very likely” to go back to a gas vehicle for their next purchase, a number that generated a lot of alarmed headlines. It’s worth noting that sentiment has moved since: McKinsey’s more recent survey work found 76% of current EV owners planning to buy another battery-electric vehicle next, with complaints about insufficient local charging dropping to 24% of respondents. So take any single-year regret number with a grain of salt.

What hasn’t changed much is why the unhappy minority is unhappy. In the 2024 survey, the top two reasons cited for wanting to switch back were lack of charging infrastructure (35%) and total cost of ownership running higher than expected (34%). Both of those are largely avoidable with better information before you buy, not fundamental flaws in EVs as a category. Here are the specific, sourced patterns worth checking before you sign anything.

Cold weather takes a bigger bite than you plan for

This is the one owners consistently underestimate. AAA’s May 2026 testing (three EVs and three hybrids run on climate-controlled dynamometers at 20°F, 75°F, and 95°F) found EV range dropped 39% and efficiency fell 35.6% at 20°F, compared with an 8.5% range hit in 95°F heat. A vehicle rated for 300 miles can realistically deliver well under 200 in serious cold. Consumer Reports’ owner-feedback roundup on things people wish they’d known pegs highway cold-weather range loss at around 25%, rising to as much as 50% on short trips with frequent stops, since a cold engine block in a gas car generates free waste heat and a cold EV has to spend battery power actively heating the cabin.

The fix isn’t a different car, it’s realistic math: check how your specific commute and climate translate into real-world range before you buy, not just the EPA sticker number. See our guide to reading an EV’s range rating for how that number is actually calculated and what widens the gap between it and what you’ll see on a cold January morning.

The charger is the easy part; the installation is where the surprises are

Consumer Reports surveyed more than 8,000 members driving 2022-or-newer EVs and found 88% had installed dedicated 240-volt Level 2 home chargers. The charger hardware itself is cheap, typically $300 to $800, and fewer than 3% of those owners reported problems with the unit itself. The surprise isn’t the charger. It’s that installation cost depends heavily on your home’s specific electrical panel and wiring, which is exactly why Consumer Reports recommends getting an electrician’s estimate before you decide an EV fits your budget, not after.

Separately, J.D. Power’s 2026 home charging study found average monthly home charging costs have climbed to $63 (up $5 year over year) while cost satisfaction fell 11 points. Part of the reason: only 38% of EV owners always schedule charging for off-peak hours, despite that being where the real savings are. See our home EV charger installation cost guide for what actually drives your specific number up or down.

Tires wear out faster than expected

A recurring theme in owner feedback: heavier curb weight (from the battery pack) plus instant torque means EVs are genuinely harder on tires than comparable gas cars. One owner quoted by Consumer Reports put it bluntly: “I’m at 60,000 miles and just bought my third set of tires.” It’s a real cost that rarely comes up during a test drive, and it partially offsets the maintenance savings people expect from skipping oil changes.

It doesn’t erase the maintenance advantage; EVs still come out ahead overall because there’s no engine oil, transmission fluid, spark plugs, or exhaust system to maintain. But budgeting for more frequent tire replacement is the honest way to plan. Our EV maintenance guide breaks down what you’ll actually spend money on and what you genuinely get to skip.

Total cost of ownership doesn’t always match the sales pitch

Tie the pieces above together and you get the McKinsey survey’s other top regret driver: 34% of would-be switchers said total ownership cost ran higher than they expected. That’s rarely one dramatic expense. It’s electricity costs that are less predictable than gas-station math, tires that wear faster, and a home charging setup that costs more than the sticker price of the charger itself, none of which show up if you only compared the EV’s MSRP to a comparable gas car’s MSRP going in.

The takeaway

None of this is a reason to skip an EV. It’s a reason to do slightly more homework than a gas-car purchase typically requires: check how your climate affects real-world range, get an actual electrician’s quote for your home before you buy (not a national average), and budget for tires on the higher end of typical estimates. Owners who did that homework are consistently the happier ones in these surveys; the regretful third tends to be the group that assumed the math would just work itself out.

Sources

• McKinsey — New twists in the electric-vehicle transition: A consumer perspective
• AAA Newsroom — AAA Study Reveals Temperature Impacts on EV and Hybrid Efficiencies and Costs
• Consumer Reports — Smarter: Things People Wished They’d Known Before Buying an EV
• Consumer Reports — How to Find the Best Home EV Charger
• J.D. Power — Study: Home Charging Satisfaction Zapped by Higher Electricity Rates, Other Challenges

Survey figures reflect the specific year and sample each organization published; regret and satisfaction rates in particular tend to shift year over year as charging infrastructure and pricing evolve.