Drivers in Spain turn their backs on electric cars and switch back to petrol

The automotive industry, which for years has been investing billions in the transition to electric vehicles that looked "inevitable", is receiving a severe reality check. A new global study by consultancy Ernst & Young (EY) confirms what many dealerships had already started to notice: electric car fever is cooling dramatically.

Far from embracing the future of batteries, consumers are taking an unexpected turn towards the familiar. What seemed like a one-way road has become a two-way street where internal combustion engines are not only holding their own, but making up lost ground.

The data in the EY report is compelling and break with the downward trend of the last decade. Among consumers planning to buy a car in the next 24 months, 50 per cent say they will choose an internal combustion model, an increase of 13 per cent over the previous year.

On the other side of the coin, interest in 100% electric vehicles has plummeted by 10% to a modest 14% of purchase intentions. However, the most revealing data is the increased scepticism of hybrids: this "bridge" technology also fell by 5% to 16%.

Furthermore, a worrying 36% of potential electric buyers are considering delaying or cancelling their decision due to geopolitical instability. The report points directly to politics as the driver of this shift in thinking. The landscape has been turned upside down by two key factors.

In the first year of its second term, the US administration has dismantled a large part of the CAFE emissions regulations. This has given manufacturers a free hand to re-prioritise thermal engines, in line with a real demand that the US market had never fully abandoned.

The second factor comes from Europe: the once ironclad ban on the sale of combustion engines by 2035 now appears to be unlikely. The European Union has begun to recalibrate its roadmap, opening the door to the survival of internal combustion engines through synthetic fuels and the extension of the life of hybrids.

The message to consumers is clear: petrol still has a long life ahead of it. Charging infrastructure problems, the high cost of acquiring electric cars and the volatility of regulations have led the average buyer, when in doubt, to opt for the reliability and simplicity of traditional mechanics.

The question that now remains is what the manufacturers who have started to produce exclusively battery operated cars will do. For the time being, 25 December 2025 is marked as the day when official data confirmed that the move to all electric is in crisis.