Electric car sales predicted to be slow this decade

This survey comes after Nissan forecast electric vehicles would make 10 per cent of the market by 2020.

The Deloitte survey based the results on high cost batteries, production and the limited performance of electric cars.

Deloitte does expect the cost of batteries for electric vehicles will be slashed by 40 per cent by 2014 from the current $1000 per kilowatt battery on offer.

Nissan is already addressing the issue, cutting the battery costs from US$472 to $370 per kilowatt on their first electric car, the Nissan LEAF.

The consulting firm said it expected that advanced batteries to power electric cars would cost near $600 per kilowatt in 2014. That would be down from near $1,000 per kilowatt today.

The survey also found that people would prefer to buy an electric car from Toyota (17 percent) as opposed to a Ford (12 percent).

Nissan came in ninth on the survey with 4 per cent, a bit of concern considering the LEAF has been an expensive project for the company.

Toyota tops the list due to its trustworthy Prius brand which arguably kick started the entire Hybrid/Electric vehicle race around the world.

Despite the Toyota Prius being a hybrid and not a full-electric vehicle, the survey suggests people had faith in Toyota producing a better electric vehicle than competitors Ford and Nissan.

Australia will soon see the Mitsubishi i-MiEV electric car in showrooms followed by the Nissan LEAF in 2012.

Source: Deloitte Consulting