A record number of Chinese consumers voiced regret at buying electric vehicles and will consider conventional automobiles for their next purchase due to a lack of charging infrastructure in the country’s vast number of small cities, a report by consultancy McKinsey said on Tuesday. McKinsey’s survey found 54% of respondents from Chinese lower-tier cities made the complaint in 2023, strikingly higher than 10% of those living in China’s first and second-tier cities and bringing the overall percentage to 22%, compared with only 3% recorded a year prior. This also resulted in a decrease for the first time in nearly a decade in the percentage of Chinese consumers saying their next car will be electric, from 68% in 2022 to 62% last year. In another sign of inconvenient access to public charging infrastructure, McKinsey said there was only one charging pile for every nine EVs in China’s less-developed regions last year, higher than the average EV to charger ratio of 7.6 in 2022. The report did note, however, that that number improved from 7.1 to 6.6 in more developed regions of the country over the period. [McKinsey & Company, in Chinese]