As the motoring world transitions to hybrids and electric, self-driving and ride-sharing, hatchbacks to big cumbersome SUVs, the amount of surveys and studies being conducted about our future continues to grow. Although the latest survey is an annual, local affair.
The AA Insurance Lifestyle Survey has been released, a desire to plot trends among Kiwi motorists among its core motives.
A total of 1070 motorists (aged 18-years-old and up with a license) were quizzed about their habits, ranging from how frequently they drive, to whether they expect to buy an electric car any time soon. And the results were interesting.
Read more: Do people actually want self-driving electric cars? New study says 'maybe not'
Twenty three per cent of respondents say that they drive less nowadays than they did last year, with 28 per cent of the total specifying that they only drive a handful of times a week. Diving deeper into the results, it was respondents aged between 40–69 that were most likely to have pulled back on their car usage.
All up, 64 per cent of the 1070 respondents say that they drive a car every day. That sounds like a lot, until you realise that the same question was answered in the affirmative by 75 per cent of respondents back in 2016. Even up to last year, that figure was at 71 per cent.
On the electric-car front, just over half of the 18–44 year-olds in the survey said that they would consider buying one as their next car if they could afford it. That figure slipped to 41 per cent for those aged 45-years-old and up. And, 5 per cent said that in the next three to five years they won't need a car of their own anyway thanks to the likes of public transport and ride sharing.
“Kiwis love to drive – in fact around 3.4 million of us hold a New Zealand driver licence – yet employment and lifestyle changes are influencing a move away from daily driving,” says customer relations manager at AA Insurance Amelia Macandrew.
“While most Kiwis believe they’ll be driving a similar amount next year, those who see themselves driving less (9%) or more (8%) are anticipating changes to their employment or stage of life. Given that 44% of drivers in the survey reported using their cars primarily for work, the shift towards driving less each week could be a significant social indicator to the work/life changes Kiwis are making across the board.
“More and more companies are embracing better work/life options for their staff, such as AA Insurance that introduced flexible working four years ago. We also encourage more use of technology, to lessen the need for our staff to drive between sites for meetings.
“Changes to the way we work have not only provided a better work/life balance for our people, but it also means less traffic on the road and a reduction in both our individual and collective environmental footprint as a company.”