Demand for Electric Cars Slows Sharply Amid Surge in Petrol Vehicle Sales
Electric car demand has slowed sharply in a sign that drivers are turning back to petrol, as the EV market share fell while the petrol vehicle share increased. The Telegraph has more.
The market share of battery electric vehicles (EVs) declined last month, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said.
EV registrations rose only 3.8% from a year earlier, compared with a 10% advance in the overall car market. Hybrid and petrol-powered cars showed the strongest growth.
Petrol-engine sales rose 9.2% and accounted for more than half of the total, while plug-in hybrids saw a 37% increase.
What gains EVs did achieve in March were driven entirely by fleet and business purchases, with sales to ordinary drivers dropping, the SMMT said.
The figures add to evidence that the immediate market for battery-powered cars is a limited one. Early adopters desperate to drive a zero-emissions vehicle have already made the switch but the mass market is proving more reluctant.
EVs cost significantly more than a similar diesel or petrol model, which is a major deterrent. Concerns about the U.K.’s sparsely spread charging infrastructure also continue to stoke so-called range anxiety.
The SMMT’s figures came as Carlos Tavares, the head of carmaking giant Stellantis, whose brands include Vauxhall, Peugeot and Fiat, warned that electric vehicles are unlikely to ever be universally popular among drivers.
Mr. Tavares said at the company’s Freedom of Mobility Forum: “We should move away from a dogmatic thinking where one size fits all.
“I don’t think this is going to work. What I would like to add is that the current EVs can be a solution for some of our societies.”
Mr. Tavares said the 500kg of raw materials currently required to produce an EV battery pack isn’t sustainable and said a technological breakthrough was required to halve the weight of battery packs over the next decade.
The market share of battery vehicles fell to 15.2% of sales in the UK in March, down from 16.2% a year earlier, SMMT figures showed.
Chief Mike Hawes said the shrinking share showed the challenge of boosting EV acceptance.
Worth reading in full.
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.
Take the subsidies and tax breaks away and see what the number is then…
I know many colleagues who owned these monstrosities due to the tax break, I hold them in silent contempt.
The demand for child shave labour in Africa just fell as a result, good news.
EV’s – a solution in search of a problem.
Make that “Climate Change” writ large, something that’s not a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist.
nice one
Thank you varmint.
Net Zero —A riddle based on a mystery wrapped up in an enigma. ———I stole that one from JFK , the Movie.
I would consider that “Spot on.” 👍
Danny Dyer made a similar comment on Brexit just before the referendum, it was funny but I just ended up liking him a little less.
Verbal diarrhoea coming from Danny’s East End
A problem in search of a solution, more like. But I get your point.
Calling an EV ‘zero emission’ is like calling a river clean because Southern Water release the sewage a whole 12 miles upstream
The Govs zero emissions mandate came into force this year, with a demand for 22% of cars to be EVs this year or there will be financial penalties.It goes upto 33% by 2026. All of which begs the question as to what happens if EV sales continue to languish? Is the industry and thus the consumer simply going to pay the penalties? or will the availability of petrol cars be restricted to fit the mandate?
I am afraid it is likely that overall total new car sales will fall, and thus eventually the total number of cars on the road will be reduced. A result which does seem in line with some of the more extreme net-zero plans.
Second hand prices will likely remain strong. My 20 year old Honda cost me £2300 seven years ago and was a great investment.
But the war on old cars is not over. Sadass Khan is the worst, but the other councils are not far behind.
And they get the potholes to help drive people of the road further 😉
The market has spoken. They’d sell themselves if they were a superior alternative to ICE. They only sell now because of the subsidies and some people’s desire to be seen as virtuous.
Only a certain class of people with money to burn can afford to satisfy their desire to be virtuous, and it looks like we are running out of those people fast. But since the silly political class have forced us in law to reduce emissions with Net Zero, watch for anther almighty push to get us all out of our perfectly good cars that we paid for good money for in good faith.
Slightly off topic, but not by much
Read an interesting article the other night.
A fully loaded Boeing 777 weights 350 tonnes, 145 tonnes for the aircraft, 145 tonnes for the fuel and 60 tonnes for the passengers, luggage and freight.
To provide the same amount of power from batteries, the batteries would have a weight of 9,700 tonnes, could only power propellers and the aircraft would weight the same when it (crash) landed.
(Of course at that weight it would never get off the ground, or even be able to taxi).
😀 😀 😀
Does that mean Billy and Klaus and the Windsors are going to be grounded?
Plus the pilot with “Long Covid” would be working from home 🙄
This is another example that highlights the absurdity of NET ZERO. Forcing the whole country in law to do something by a certain date with no consideration of the cost or of the practically. Interfering in the marketplace so that is no longer a free market, but one of mandates, regulations and subsidies based entirely on a political agenda called Sustainable Development that has decided what is true about climate mostly with very little in the way of evidence and mostly based on modelling. It is an agenda that has hijacked climate for its purposes. The other important think that people should know is that it will not make a single dent in the alleged climate change what we do in this country as we contribute so little in the way of global emissions. If doing something makes little or immeasurable difference then why do it? ——The answer is very simple. It isn’t about the climate.—————- So over the coming years we are all going to be coerced into having vehicles we don’t want under false pretences.
“
So over the coming years we are all going to be coerced into having vehicles we don’t want under false pretences.”This requires deletion.
The end game is that all forms of motorised transport will be taken from us. We might be left with a few peddle bikes but that’s about it.
Yes where is that UK FIRES report, they have been silent on that from the start.
mmmmm———I had visions of my niece and her 4 children heading off to Sainsbury’s for the weekly shop on a bicycle.
The return of the horse and carriage?
In their desperation to force people to buy EVs no-one wants, the EU are considering making it illegal to repair vehicles manufactured more than 15 years ago. Inconveniently, almost half of Spanish cars fall into this category.
Any product being pushed so hard by governments must necessarily be crap.
Nail – Head.
👍