Well, maybe novelist Angela Carter wasn’t thinking about the EV market in 35 years’ time when she wrote those words. Perhaps broadcaster and writer Clive Anderson’s words are more appropriate to a blog on the European car market and the challenge presented by the emerging markets of Asia and South America:

Private ownership of EVs hit record highs in 2023, according to our analysis of new data from the Department for Transport. Read our latest analysis of the true picture behind the headlines.

EV in Focus recently noted that while Elon Musk may demand that his firm “should be thought of as an AI or robotics company — if you value Tesla as just like an auto company… it is just the wrong framework”, Tesla no longer has the luxury of promising automated driving jam tomorrow without a near-term roadmap for growing demand for its cars.

Rather than it being the end of EVs, sales of battery electric cars are still increasing in the vast majority of markets, and in some markets extremely fast. (We are talking pure battery electric vehicles - plug-in hybrids, which are less efficient and have tailpipe emissions, exacerbating climate change, are not included.

Gov.uk published its latest quarterly report on public charge point rollout at the end of last month. Amongst the doom and gloom on EV sales (up 42,000 in the year to March 2024 on the previous 12 months, purchase costs down, savings of £1000 a year on running costs, that kind of thing), it’s good to hear that it hasn’t damaged charge point operator confidence. 

‘Clean Cars for Carers: enabling rural care workers to switch to electric cars’ New report from the climate action campaign group Possible published 1 April 2024

A lot of reports have made much of the fact that a few London boroughs have more chargers than several large metropolitan areas in the Midlands and the North. This makes great copy but overlooks that London has a lot more EVs than other cities, and very few driveways. In fact the chart above shows that public charge points are increasing steeply everywhere. Annual growth in chargepoint numbers in 2023 was 45%.

Purchase price parity for EVs has variously been tipped to be achieved in Europe in 2024 by Exeter University, 2025 according to Goldman Sachs, the mid-2020s according to the International Energy Agency or 2030 according to the CEO of Ford. But sometimes it is worth looking up from down the road, and at what we can see for certain: how much EVs cost - and can save - consumers right now.

The total number of battery electric cars on UK roads at the end of 2023 just missed the 1 million mark. This milestone came just into 2024, meaning BEVs now account for approximately 3% of the total car parc in the UK. Although a record number of motorists switched to electrified transport over the year, there is a mountain to climb before this starts to drastically affect the car parc’s overall makeup. We estimate that this number will grow further - to 1.2 to 1.3 million, approaching 4% - by the end of 2024.

“Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, creeps in this petty pace from day to day”, which is a pretentious way of saying that sometimes the sound and fury of monthly EV sales figures and their selective dissection sometimes signifies nothing. Or if not quite nothing - after all, that’s why New AutoMotive produces its monthly Electric Car Count, Electric Van Count and all new Global EV Tracker - you can still risk losing the site of the bigger picture.

As our State of the Switch report 2024 shows, 2023 saw a record number of battery electric vehicles registered in the UK, in a period of growth for the whole car market. The total number of EVs registered in the UK over 2023 was 297,890. This is 18.5% higher than the number registered in 2022 which stood at 251,406.

Our latest report on progress towards the UK’s transition to clean road transport.

We were delighted to be invited to present some of our work to representatives from Europe’s automotive industry at the DRCC conference in Munich in March 2024

How the UK can accelerate emissions reductions and boost energy security by getting high mileage drivers to go electric

There have been a lot of headlines about how Chinese electric car sales are booming. While this is good news for the planet, the growing expectation that China has passed another, more important tipping point: peak petrol consumption.

How can this be? Chinese electric car sales have certainly been booming, but sales of new ICE cars are still outpacing the attrition rate.

Are private buyers really shunning electric cars?

In the rapidly evolving landscape of the European electric vehicle (EV) sector, partnering is the key to innovation and sustainability. As the demand for clean and efficient transportation solutions continues to surge, forming strategic partnerships is essential for staying at the forefront of this dynamic industry. In this blog, we'll explore the immense potential for partnerships within Europe's thriving EV sector

The August silly season seems to come earlier every year. Hand-wringing Times editorials, a Daily Mail campaign, and now the Sun demanding “Give us a Brake”, the media have decided to focus on electric vehicles. Here’s why Ministers are more likely to put the pedal to the metal and accelerate the UK’s transition to electric cars.

Electric car registrations continued a run of very strong growth in June as consumers increasingly shun petrol and diesel in favour of hybrid and fully electric cars. Consumer demand continues to outstrip supply, with waiting times continuing to extend out to as much as 52 weeks for some electric models, due to the popularity of these vehicles.