Electric car sales in UK flatline, prompting calls for VAT cut

Submitted ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨GreyShuck@feddit.uk⁩ to ⁨unitedkingdom@feddit.uk⁩

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/jan/05/electric-car-sales-in-uk-flatline-prompting-calls-for-vat-cut

The number of new cars registered in the UK has jumped by nearly 18% but electric vehicle demand is flatlining, prompting the industry to call for a VAT cut to stimulate sales.

Annual figures released by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) on Friday show 1.9m new cars were registered last year, well up on the previous year’s figure of 1.6m and the highest level since the 2.3m registrations of 2019.

The increase is a boost for the automotive industry after the pandemic led to supply chain problems and a shortage of vital computer chips that slowed production.

Across the year, 315,000 new battery electric vehicles were sold. That was 50,000 more than 2022, but the number being bought as a share of total registrations failed to grow as expected. They represented just 16.5% of the total, slightly down on last year’s 16.6%.

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danielquinn@lemmy.ca ⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Or, we start incentivising e-bikes,

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- Gradually_Adjusting@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  I guess it has more to do with worries about the cost of electricity.
  
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  - danielquinn@lemmy.ca ⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Or the cost of cars in the midst of a cost of living crisis. E-bikes are cheap by comparison and only about £14/year for electricity.
    
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  - wahming@monyet.cc ⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    That doesn’t make any sense. Electricity is always cheaper than gas.
    
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MonsterMonster@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
The cost of public EV charging is putting people off EV’s. 79p/Kwh is more expensive than petrol/diesel. Home charging is cheaper at a tenth of the price but when you are few hundred miles from home it’s makes no economic sense.

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- jabjoe@feddit.uk ⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Typical EV, 3.5 miles per kWh Rapid cost = 79p/kWh 79p/3.5 = 23p per mile
  
  Typical petrol, 36 miles per gallon liters 4.5461 per gallon 36 / 4.5461 = 7.92 miles per liter 149.8p per litre 149.8p / 7.92 = 19p per mile
  
  So yes, more expensive. BUT charging at a public charger is rare for me. About once a month.
  
  I get 7p/kWh over night when I charge at home. I get about 3miles per kWh, so about 2.33p per mile. I commute about a thousand miles a month, charging at home. For about £23.33p
  
  Public chargers are a rip off, but it’s in the noise compared to the commute cost saving.
  
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  - TedZanzibar@feddit.uk ⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    I mean you’re not wrong but at the same time it’s foolish to write off the cost of public charging as a non-issue. People who are used to having to drive somewhere to fill up with fossil fuels are already wary of charging times and charger availability, so the fact that it currently costs more than petrol is another reason for them to just buy another new combustion car while they’re still available.
    
    We went electric a smidge under 5 years ago and in that time the cost of a rapid charge has more than doubled. If that had happened to petrol or diesel there would’ve been riots in the streets!
    
    It’s a ridiculous state of affairs but nothing’s likely to change while the government is beholden to the oil industry. This is exactly what they want.
    
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  - MonsterMonster@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Likewise I charge at home on Octopus Go with most journeys within return distance of home. We do about 17k miles per year so we save about £2k a year over diesel. Yes public chargers are a rip off and do not see the prices coming down for EV or domestic any time soon if at all.
    
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LemmyIsFantastic@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Going full EV will never happen with today’s tech. They just don’t meet the need of too many drivers outside the middle class. Unless you don’t need to take longer trips often and you can change at home, EVs suck.

PHEVs with 80 miles of range will be the sweet spot IMO.

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- peter@feddit.uk ⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  In the UK the range of an EV will get you quite a significant distance. Some EVs advertise a range over 400 miles. Even half that is more than most brits travel in a day.
  
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  - LemmyIsFantastic@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    If it’s not useful for car trips, the average lower income family isn’t going to rent a car or fly. Nobody drops 30k so they can rent a car every time they want to leave the island.
    
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scrchngwsl@feddit.uk ⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Frankly I think they are still too expensive for most people up front. It’s a lot cheaper to run if you can charge at home, but if you can’t afford the extra £5k-£10k vs an equivalent petrol car then you’re not going to buy it. New EVs in particular are overpriced IMO, whereas the used market is actually pretty good value right now. There’s just no point in spending £37k-42k on a new Kia Niro EV when you can get a 3 year old model for £15k-20k that’s just as good.

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- JoBo@feddit.uk ⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  New cars are too expensive for the vast majority of people. Policies like this are intended to get more (new) EVs on the road now so that in 5, 10, 15 years’ time there are affordable EVs available for those who buy secondhand.
  
  It’s not a good policy. A hefty subsidy to the upper middle class which assumes private vehicles are part of a sustainable future (they’re not). Better to increase VAT on non-EVs, tax non-EV company cars at a punitive rate, buy only EVs for public services.
  
  And put a shitload of money into public transport which is free at the point of use. Focus driverless tech on ‘last mile’ trips (getting people to and from public transport hubs). Plus community pool EVs for those trips which are impossible by public transport no matter how good it is.
  
  Any ‘green’ policy focused on getting more of any kind of car on the road will fail to achieve its ‘green’ aim. They’re just finding ways to shovel more money at the relatively well off and pretend it’s good.
  
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Wanderer@lemm.ee ⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Wish we would just tax cars more and use that to put designated cycle lanes in or any form of public transport on its own lane.

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- echodot@feddit.uk ⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  There’s barely the capacity for a lot of UK roads. The option would be to ban on the street parking but that’s the only option millions of people have.
  
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  - Wanderer@lemm.ee ⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Cars don’t need to be on all roads. Just close them to cars. Or have two roads have have one lane in each direction for cars.
    
    But I’m more for the radical idea of redeveloping large parts of downtown or near downtown anyway. Level it and rebuild it with higher density and more public transport, cycling, walking and parks
    
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mondoman712@lemmy.ml ⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Can we maybe not subsidise more cars and more car infrastructure? More money for active and public transport will go much further for helping the environment among many other things.

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autotldr@lemmings.world [bot] ⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
This is the best summary I could come up with:

The number of new cars registered in the UK has jumped by nearly 18% but electric vehicle demand is flatlining, prompting the industry to call for a VAT cut to stimulate sales.

The increase is a boost for the automotive industry after the pandemic led to supply chain problems and a shortage of vital computer chips that slowed production.

After the latest figures showing the sector is still well short of that target and that the switchover is stalling, the SMMT is calling for the government to halve VAT on all new ZEV purchases across the next three years.

It has estimated the plan, which equates to an average of £4,000 per purchase, would save consumers a total of £7.7bn over the period and would put 250,000 extra ZEVs on the road by 2026.

Mike Hawes, the SMMT chief executive, said: “Government has challenged the UK automotive sector with the world’s boldest transition timeline and is investing to ensure we are a major maker of electric vehicles.

Superminis – small hatchbacks such as the Ford Fiesta and Vauxhall Corsa – continued to be the country’s most popular category of car, making up nearly 30% of all new vehicles.

The original article contains 632 words, the summary contains 198 words. Saved 69%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

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