They are cheap to run. They rarely break down. And perhaps most of all they are far better for the environment. For the last decade we have been endlessly lectured about how electric cars are so completely superior to the petrol variety that they would quickly dominate the market. But hold on. Now that some of the subsidies and mandates are being removed sales are collapsing. Left to themselves, it turns out that most drivers don’t want them.
According to figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders released yesterday, sales of EVs slumped by 17 per cent in November, the largest ever monthly fall. After taking a larger and larger share of the market for the last few years, sales now appears to have gone into reverse. Indeed, the Office for Budgetary Responsibility had forecast that EVs would account for 67 per cent of the market by 2027 but it has halved that, predicting just 38 per cent by that year.
It is not hard to work out why. A £1,500 cash handout to private purchasers was scrapped last year, and, perhaps more significantly, the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak pushed back the target for banning new petrol cars from 2030 to 2035. There are still generous tax breaks for businesses buying an EV, so fleet sales are still healthy, but deterred by high prices, a hopelessly inadequate charging system, and collapsing second hand values, ordinary buyers are staying away. That is not just a British phenomenon. In Germany, EV sales dropped by 35 per cent in September after tax breaks were phased out.
The simple truth is this. Without generous tax breaks, and bans on any of the alternatives, the EV is at best a niche product. They are fine as second cars for the suburbs, so long as you have a charger at home, and you have an alternative for long trips. And they may work for some city dwellers who only need a car very occasionally. Everyone else, which is most people, is deciding they will see what other alternatives become available. We may soon have hydrogen fuelled cars, or vehicles that run on ‘green petrol’, or, of course, a whole new generation of far superior EV’s capable of running for hundreds of miles on a quick charge. Until then, the market had decided that the EV is not the answer. It is just a question of when the political class catches up with that reality.
