EV Demand Tumbles In January
By Paul Homewood
h/t Philip Bratby
Electric cars saw their market share plunge by a quarter in Britain last month, as cash-strapped consumers baulked at high prices and soaring insurance costs.
Battery electric vehicles (BEVs) represented just 14.7pc of new car sales in January, down from 19.7pc in December, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).
It comes after full-year figures for 2023 revealed that the market share of EVs was going into reverse for the first time, with many drivers still put off by high upfront costs, unevenly spread charging networks and big insurance premiums.
In a new forecast, the SMMT cut the predicted market share of EVs this year from 22.3pc to 21pc.
The industry body said 20,935 new EVs were registered in January – taking the total registered in Britain so far to just over one million.
However, experts warned that the lacklustre figures were a sign that consumers were shunning new cars in favour of second-hand alternatives.
The numbers will intensify industry calls for Jeremy Hunt, the Chancellor, to slash VAT on EV purchases in his March 6 Budget, a move that the SMMT claims would turbocharge sales.
This is particularly astonishing since manufacturers would have been keen to delay registrations in December, in order to get a head start towards their target for this year. Also fleet sales, where EV uptake is much stronger, is up a whopping 29.9%, so you would have expected this to feed through into higher EV sales.
https://www.smmt.co.uk/vehicle-data/car-registrations/
Some of us have been arguing this for years. The average driver simply cannot afford to pay an extra ten grand for an EV. And there is no sign that EV prices will start falling.
Throwing more taxpayer subsidies at the problem is not an answer, not least because it will mostly benefit people who can afford to fork out £40K for a Tesla.
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NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT 
Not many “cheap” EVs just now but MG are currently offering the MG4 at £99 per month and cheaper Chinese EVs will be launching in the UK soon.
For the USEFUL record : *Range applies to All-New MG4 EV Trophy Extended Range with the 77kWh battery from a single charge on the WLTP combined cycle: Combined Range 323 miles (520 km): City Range: 439 miles (708 km); Combined Driving Efficiency: 3.72 miles/kWh (16.7 kWh/I00km). from https://www.mg.co.uk/new-cars/mg4-ev Not that I support EVs, but it does show a fuel consumption figure which I’ve never seen before: Compare that with Petrol cars. And if it is so good, ask yourselves WHY petrol cars must have such large engines ( and small radiators ) etc etc
My son gets all sorts of new VWs from his work. I’ve been amazed at how small the engine usually is. At the weekend he had a T-Cross. Which was quite a decent size, 3 adults and two children quite comfortably and decent boot space. He reckoned the range was around 400 miles in safety but I can’t confirm that.
I was surprised that it was a 1 Litre engine as it was automatic. Thinking back to when I learnt to drive it was on a 1.6 Viva and there’s no comparison in performance.
To me that’s amazing performance from a small engine.
Yeah-es, but ………. the bittie that causes me “sleepless nights” ’3.72 miles/kWh (16.7 kWh/I00km‘ so say 37miles consumes 10kWh of power = 16hphrs if you like …. so what kind of car can get 37miles out of 16 hp and then burning 3/4 of an Imperial Gallon, or for rounding simplicity say 4 Litres of fuel in that hour? 37mpg is widely accepted as OK fuel consumption, but 16 hp? So then I have to ask, Why this craving for BIG ( and weighty of OVER 100hp ) engines in our small cars ? …. and let us NOT go down the road of Clarkson’s TORQ. !
Yes, Glen. Imagine VW putting that engine in a 1900 pound two-seater! Surely 50 mpg and FUN!
Saighdear,
as with heat pumps, those quoted figures (miles per Kwhour) are an illusion. That is the electricity consumed, it does not take into account the energy to produce that kwhour and convey it to the consumer. Divide by three will give an approximate figure of actual energy efficiency. The 3.72 miles then equates to 1.24 miles.
Iain, division by three is higher than I thought, does a similar ratio apply to petrol?
Those figures are under ideal conditions, as carefully tested by the manufacturer.
To glenartney - recently been working on a friend’s Mercedes 451 Smart Fortwo. It has an automated “manual” gear box with two electric motors effectively doing the gear shifting for you rather than a conventional auto system.
Given there is barely a single square centimetre of free space in the back end engine compartment (battery in passenger foot-well, radiator at front end) it is the most incredibly hard system to work on. And it’s a Mitsubishi engine anyway!
From the SMMT news item: ” ……… in January, registrations by private buyers (of BEVs) fell by -25.1% – an ongoing trend that will undermine Britain’s ability to deliver net zero.”
Undermine delivery of Net Zero?
Excellent!
I bet we could find more than ten people on here who could advise the CCC that NZC is not necessary….
The British people never proposed or signed up to Net Zero – it is the government’s idea not ours.
How does one turbocharge an EV? Surely part of the problem.
Porsche have the Taycan Turbo S, a BEV with no turbo (obviously). There’s even an option to make it sound like a proper car (if it’s not expensive enough already)!
the SMMT claims would turbocharge sales. Sales – not the cars. But, still, in the case of sales — what does turbocharge mean? 1%, 10%, . . . 100% ?
Right, tim. I was going to point out that horrible metaphor, too.
Plug a booster in the cigar lighter??
gosh gezza you’re posh to have a cigar lighter in your car…mine only has a cigarette lighter!
Tinkering with the price by VAT adjustment seems almost fraudulent as a means of inducing purchasers to take on the many disappointments and frustrations which go with EV use.
As residuals have some relationship with first cost it seems likely that to reduce first cost will drive down residuals for the 1M cars now in circulation.
My libertarian side says government has no right to use its taxing authority to manipulate behavior.
They have the right to tax the people to pay for government functions. Manipulating taxes to manipulate the people is totalitarian.
Yep, and the UK has been a socialist totalitarian state since 1947.
The US became fully fascist around 1965, 20 years after winning the War to End Fascism.
Strong, autocratic central control of a private economy. The federal government has over 600 agencies dictating how people should live.
E.g., I did a study a few years ago on what agencies you’d have to interact with if you attempted to make doxycycline in the US.
OSHA, EPA, EEOC, CPSC, USDA, BIS, BSEE, CSB, USCIS, DOC, OOC, ODEP, EBSA, ETA, SSA, FERC, FLRA, FMSHRC, FMCSA, FTC, FTA, FDA, FNS, FSIS, FE, GIPSA, ICE, BIS, DOI, IRS, DOL, BLS, MSHA, NIOSH, NIST, NLRB, NTSB, NRC, OSHRC, ODEP, OEM, OFE, OLHCHH, OMHP, ONE, OPM, OSTP, OSMRE, PTO, PBGC, PHMSA, PA, RRB, RITA, BSEE, OSTP, SIP, SEC, SBA, DOT, TSA, USAOC, USCSB, USCIS, DOE, CERT, WMD
“Fugit. We’ll just get China to make it.”
Tut. Government has no Right to tax, they have the power to do so because they have a monopoly on violence and can use the full coercive powers of the State to extort the citizenry… that’s no more a Right, than Don Corleone has to extortion.
Yes there is a relationship but only if the market price in both cases is truly market. The value second-hand is not affected by a manipulated new price. If people really wanted EVs, the second-hand market for them would be very strong and prices would reflect that. But there seems to be even less demand in the second-hand market than the new market.
It’s not just the cost of EV’s. A close neighbour who had a Tesla S fully paid for by his business cancelled a new Tesla Y and purchased a petrol Audi S5. He could no longer put up with the hassle of using the S on all but the shortest of business trips as it was adding hours to his working day.
Used BEV market in trouble
FORBESLIFESTYLECARS & BIKES
Hard Lesson As Used Electric Vehicle Prices Crash: Tesla Model Y, Model 3 And Chevy Bolt At CarMax
https://www.forbes.com/sites/brookecrothers/2024/02/04/hard-lesson-as-used-electric-vehicle-prices-crash-tesla-model-y-model-3-and-chevy-bolt-at-carmax/
The man is a liar. He bought a cheapass EV and it’s value collapsed. A surprise to no one who looked at the numbers before spending $32k for POS car. Then he dumps his stupidity on Tesla.
Hard Lesson As Used Electric Vehicle Prices Crash: Tesla Model Y, Model 3 And Chevy Bolt At CarMax
A stupid lie. Chevy Bolt prices [expectedly] crashed. Teslas did not. He falsely projects the Bolt experience on Tesla.
He is claiming everyone is a sucker, when it’s just him.
Musk must be punished for challenging DC blob.
Musk’s TITS university is rather good…
Yes, put it across town from Sam Houston Institute of Technology.
It’s not ‘just’ about prices though, is it? When full details of the stumbling sales of new – let alone used, EV’s gets more general circulation as it now is they also lose whatever aspirational/virtue-signalling etc elements that the Govt and mfrs hoped for. It is all very well ‘saving the planet’ in your over-priced, glossy milk-float, but not if it makes a big dent in your wallet and forces unwanted lifestyle limitations on you.
It’s going to be interesting (in a rather perverse way) to see – and difficult to predict, if the powers-that-be carry on throwing £££billions of OUR money into trying to overcome the charging/range anxiety and now £££value issues. Issues that have been clearly apparent to some of us from the get-go.
Agreed.
drivers still put off by high upfront costs, unevenly spread charging networks and big insurance premiums
None of this is new, except for the insurance cost, and I don’t think the market is fully aware of that yet.
This is why, except for the current electro-panic, we don’t have lots an’ lots of battery-electric cars in the streets! Tried ’em a hundred years ago – and gave up. We NOW know the reasons!
Doesn’t bode well for the 80% mandated sales in a few years time
Maybe time to re-appraise what we’ve been told about them, then ? https://www.etechnophiles.com/ev-battery-size-weight-power-capacity/ Something’s OBVIOUSLY wrong somewhere then, eh ?
With reference to that MG4 and its 77 kwh battery-charge, this site gives the range under real driving conditions as 265 miles.
https://ev-database.org/uk/cheatsheet/range-electric-car
The actual cost of 77 kwh of electricity is about £20 if you charge it at home and anywhere from £40 to £60 if on the road. You will twiddle your thumbs between 1/2 hr and 1 hr if you do your virtue signalling in public.
A litre of petrol is roughly equivalent to 9 kwh. So the electric charge is like 8 or 9 litres of petrol. The taxed cost of that petrol is about £12 (at least half IS tax) and the energy will go into your tank in 30 seconds.
“This electric nonsense don’t impress me none!”
“…and the energy will go into your tank in 30 seconds.”
Of course, it is true that you will need to put more energy in by petrol, as the efficiency with which electricity from the battery can be used to move the car is greater. So the (untaxed) cost of the equivalent amount of petrol is probably more like £8 than £6.
In my opinion, a reasonable suggestion, for someone who is not emotional about motor-cars, is to always buy second-hand, picking the most reliable ICE vehicle(s) one can afford, when they are about five years old. Then treat them carefully – and keep as long as possible.
A 0 – 100% charge is unlikely so it will be more like 70 kWh, max. On the various domestic EV tariffs available that will cost 7 – 8p per kWh; call it £5 – 6 for a full “tank”.
Life is simple, if you want something – you buy it. However, in a situation where someone states that YOU will buy this item, regardless of the fact it is 25% more expensive, you simply say “No, thank you”.
If a product is any good, it will sell itself on quality, price, features, benefits, whole life costs, ease of use – if it is, well let’s be kind, not as good as currently available alternatives, you could always go down the route of banning competitor products or imposing a “fine” on the competition of £15,000 per unit.
BEV’s have a market – they are perfect city cars, but serve no purpose should a reasonable mileage be required, so the solution is simple, leave the market to sort out the mix of ICE v BEV, the fittest will survive, the rest will just whither and close – it’s called capitalism – and it works.
No electric campervans for you
No obituary at he BBC , they’re in denial?
Am I the only person getting an error trying to get to WUWT?
I see errors all the time visiting US sites from UK that are likely “unapproved” and also I see regionally tailored content (Hello! BBC)
If the “state actors” who perpetrated the Microsoft break-in that emerged last week (after “them” being in there for 2 months) have any competence at all – then 2024 might be the year that tech takes a serious bashing…. add that to stuff like Germany blocking political party web sites…. see: https://youtu.be/JZAJl374FCE
It seems likely that they won’t release the entirety / full extent of the security failure for months although the video does give some detail.
The sheer quantity and quality of what was exposed explains the reticence and lack of MSM coverage.
No problem here. Did have a very noticeable internet slowdown two days ago and I attributed it to DNS problems that have now gone away.
They continue with the delusion that buyers are “cash-strapped”. But nobody chooses to pay £10,000 more for anything than they need to. And nobody chooses to then lose another £10,000 on the second-hand value – that simply erodes my ability to buy new again. I have my doubts whether private fleet buyers will continue to buy BEVs – it would be interesting to see what proportion of the fleet buyers in January are truly private and not e.g. police, NHS, MoD.
Why would they even pay the same for something that is worse?
The “!Customer is King”. Always was and always will be!
When something is lower in January
that suggests to me, it was extra high in December
Paul said ” since manufacturers would have been keen to delay registrations in December, in order to get a head start towards their target for this year. ”
AFAIK it’s generally dealers who register cars
and they register them early for book reasons.
Did they have a target for 2023 and thus register all their cars on the forecourt then ?
I doubt it Stew
I’ve read that manufacturers are offering huge bonuses to dealers to meet EV sales targets this year, so the opposite should be the case.
In actual fact EV numbers are higher then Jan 23, but they were unusually low then
Meanwhile the CCC have decided the lack of EV sales is the media’s fault (no doubt especially Mr Paul Homewood!) in producing so much “misinformation”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-68130432
The climate fascists really are trying to take over. Who need a free press eh?
Trying? Many might consider that the fascists have already taken over.
Lords Climate Change Committee? Can anyone imagine anything more clueless, useless or biased?
Ah , but the press is not free. It is beholden to the advertisers. See the black arts of the advertising world as applied to frustrate GB News in the early days when ‘household names’ advertising agents were lobbied to not take space at GB N.
Great news