One EV is registered every 60 seconds* in the UK & now accounts for 16%+ of total sales**.

According to the SMMT, however, this is threatened by the absence of support for private buyers.

Many private buyers who plan to go electric are delaying due to concerns over affordability and uncertainty regarding the availability of a nationwide charging network.

Uptake of 100% electric cars has soared over the past five years. In 2018, they comprised just 0.7% of the UK new car market, yet are anticipated to account for 17.8% by the end of the year. This is good progress but the market must move even faster to meet net zero ambitions.

While the shift was originally driven by private consumers, they have since been overtaken by fleets and business buyers. Following 2022’s removal of the Plug-in Car Grant (leaving Britain as the only major European market with no consumer EV incentives yet the most ambitious transition timeline) sales to private buyers have fallen from more than one in three, to less than one in four.***

Driving up demand is made more urgent by the proposed Zero Emission Vehicle Mandate which will compel the sale of electric cars and vans but has still to be finalised with barely 100 days to go until implementation.

Business demand has been boosted by fiscal incentives, proving that purchasing support powers up markets. Private drivers also want to make the switch from ICE to electric cars, as a new survey commissioned from Savanta shows. Two thirds (68%) of non-EV drivers surveyed said they want to make the switch but just 2% plan to invest this year and 17% in 2024, with more than half saying they will not be ready until 2026 or later.****

Manufacturers are committed to delivery, having invested heavily to ensure there is increasingly wide-ranging choice in the market, with performance to meet drivers’ needs. Getting consumers to buy sooner, however, depends on financial incentives (said 68% of respondents) and ready access to affordable, reliable public charging (said 67% of respondents).

The success of the business and fleet markets in switching must now be replicated in the private retail market. While manufacturers already provide attractive purchase incentives, these need to be complimented by government-backed incentives.

For example, reducing VAT on EV purchases would mirror existing discounts on other environmental products such as solar panels and heat pumps and would also improve Exchequer receipts. Raising the threshold for the Vehicle Excise Duty ‘expensive car supplement’ from its 2017 level to reflect today’s costs, or exempting EVs altogether, would also help. Taxation would also be fairer if VAT on public charging matched home charging at 5% not 20%.

Furthermore, mandating targets for charge point rollout would help overcome the other issue holding back consumers, insufficient infrastructure. Such measures would improve the attractiveness of EVs to British consumers and flow through to the second-hand market, increasing demand and helping address concerns about the residual value of electric cars.

Once consumers make the change to an EV, they seldom go back. Nine in 10 electric car drivers say they wouldn’t go back to a conventionally fuelled vehicle, with most (57%) loving that they spend less on fuelling, although, overwhelmingly, those drivers have access to home charging (84%), while half (49%) are delighted to have reduced their environmental impact.

Notes:

* Summer surge as one new EV registered every 60 seconds, SMMT, 4 August 2023

** ACEA: Fuel types of new cars, 1 February 2023

*** Private share of new BEV registrations Jan-Jun 2022: 36.3%; Jan-Jun 2023: 24.2%
**** Savanta interviewed 2,375 adults online in the UK, filtering to those who have access to a car, between 1-8 September 2023. Data weighted to be demographically representative of the UK by age, gender, region and social grade. Savanta is a member of the British Polling Council and abides by its rules www.savanta.com