EV Owner Survey: 8 in 10 Spanish Households Make It Their Main Car

Spain's largest mutual insurer, Mutua Madrileña, commissioned the research firm Demométrica to survey 1,200 owners of battery-electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles across the country. The report, titled "Uso del Vehículo Eléctrico en España," was published in mid-October 2026 and is one of the largest owner-only samples of its kind in Spain to date.

The study only covers people who have already bought a plug-in vehicle, so it measures satisfaction and behaviour among adopters rather than comparing them with buyers of petrol or diesel cars.

From second car to main car

Among households that own more than one vehicle, 79.1% now use their plug-in car as the main, most-driven vehicle rather than a secondary one, according to the survey reported by Roams. The share is higher for pure electric vehicles, at 84.1%, than for plug-in hybrids, at 74.3%.

The same data shows 64% of surveyed households own more than one car, and for 84% of respondents the plug-in model was the first vehicle of this type they had ever bought.

Satisfaction and whether owners would buy again

Overall satisfaction averaged 7.9 out of 10, according to figures reported by Motor16. Satisfaction is not uniform across the two technologies: 53% of pure electric owners gave the top rating (9 or 10), compared with a lower share among plug-in hybrid owners.

The gap widens on repurchase intent. Nueva Movilidad reported that 63% of pure electric vehicle owners said they would buy the same technology again, versus 44% of plug-in hybrid owners.

According to Nueva Movilidad, the infrastructure problems respondents cited most were a lack of unified information about available charging points (46.8%) and charger malfunctions or unavailability (45.4%).

Why they bought and what still worries them

Fuel-cost savings was the single most common reason for buying a plug-in car, cited by 51% of respondents, according to Motor16. Environmental considerations followed at 32%, and 30% pointed to access benefits tied to Spain's DGT "CERO" emissions label, which grants entry to low-emission zones in several cities.

On the downside, 56.5% of respondents named the purchase price as a concern and 53.9% cited limited driving range, per the same Motor16 report. Battery durability was the top safety-related worry, named by 51.1% of participants, according to Nueva Movilidad.

How owners actually charge

Home charging dominates daily use: 75% of owners said they charge mainly at home, and Motor16 reported that 58% rely on slow charging rather than fast chargers. Roams reported that only 11% of owners use fast-charging stations on a regular basis.

Usage patterns are mostly urban: Roams found 53% of owners use their plug-in car exclusively for city trips, while 35.4% use it for all types of journeys, including longer interurban routes. Nearly half of respondents, 45.4%, drive between 1,000 and 2,000 kilometres per month.

What the numbers do not show

Because the sample is limited to people who already own a plug-in vehicle, the survey cannot measure why non-adopters have not switched, nor compare satisfaction against conventional-car owners. It also does not disclose regional breakdowns or the margin of error for subgroup figures such as the 11% fast-charging rate.