Stalled growth in electric vehicles comes despite government goal to phase out petrol, diesel and hybrid vehicles by 2035

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%.

  • MonsterMonsterEnglish
    1•6 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.

    • @[email protected]English
      1•6 months ago

      I think it will take either proper competition or regulation to stop public chargers being a rip off. Domestic can be cheaper now. There is dynamic pricing, where you can get negitive cost power. Solar and big house battery of course.