Maximising Impact: Transitioning Efficiently

British motorists are driving fewer miles, in the new post-pandemic normal.

The average annual mileage in the UK was just under 5,400 miles in 2021. This figure is 3,000 miles lower than in 2011 and over 1,000 miles lower than in 2020, when COVID-19 lockdown restrictions saw annual mileage drop to around 6,500 miles.

Despite this, provisional figures for 2021 from the Department of Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy (DBEIS) suggest that the transport sector is still the biggest single contributor to the UK’s total carbon emissions output. Emissions from passenger vehicles make up a sizable chunk of the transport sector's total emissions contribution.

This is at least partly because there is a relatively small cohort of drivers driving significantly higher than average numbers of miles. In 2021, just 14.4% of all cars on British roads drove more than 10,000 miles. These cars collectively were responsible for just under 34% of all carbon emissions generated by passenger cars.

It is safe to assume the vast majority of these cars are used for business purposes or by elements of the public service. These may be taxis, Ubers, police cars, or delivery vehicles. It is likely that vehicles in this group which are not used for a commercial purpose belong to Britons who are required to drive a significant commute each day.

There is absolutely no reason these vehicles should not be electric. Electric cars are more than capable of completing high annual mileages - indeed, the average annual mileage for electric cars in 2021 was 6,000 miles, around 500 miles higher than the average across all fuel types (see the footnote at the end of the piece for the data and methodology we used to determine these figures). There is also a strong economic case that supports these miles being driven under an electric powertrain; EVs are cheaper per mile to run than petrol and diesel cars, and often require less maintenance and service, further reducing the total cost of ownership.

Given this, the government must be asking itself how the cars doing these miles can be electrified - as soon as possible. It is essential not just for the UK’s transition, but also for the government’s overall net zero goal and help to improve air quality across the UK.

The government must use ambitious and forward thinking public policy to support the transition of the vehicles driving these miles. This support could take many forms. For the cohort of high mileage drivers who are on the road for personal rather than business reasons, the government could consider offering a targeted, interest-free loan scheme aimed at helping car-dependent families purchase second hand electric cars.

Public policy should also be used to drive the electrification of high mileage public service vehicles, such as police cars, that do a lot of miles. The average annual mileage for police vehicles is 12,000 miles and there are roughly 31,000 police vehicles on British roads, with only a tiny fraction being electric. Fleet mandates, targeted grants, and scrappage schemes should all be on the table as the government looks for ways to cut out these sources of emissions and reduce fuel costs for public services. In the case of police vehicles, the government should implement ambitious targets in the mandate for the electrification of police fleets.

To encourage the electrification of commercial fleets, the government should protect the running-cost savings EVs offer over diesel and petrol vehicles - if the business case for going electric remains strong, companies will continue to electrify of their own accord. Extending the Energy Bill Relief Scheme (EBRS) beyond the end of March 2023 would give businesses confidence that EVs will be more economical to run than ICE cars in the long-term, and embolden more to make the switch.

Footnote:
The data we used to calculate average annual mileage figures by fuel type comes from the DVSA API regarding MOT data for individual cars. This data provides a range of information for a car, by fuel type and the sample size available through this data is roughly around 90,000 EVs, and around 27 million vehicles of other fuel types.We calculated annual mileage by determining the difference between the two annual MOT tests for an individual vehicle and then used this data to determine a median average mileage by fuel type. We determined annual electric miles using figures for electric vehicles only, whilst ice miles we calculate by combining petrol, diesel, and ‘other’ fuel types.The average mileage for an EV in 2021 was higher than the average for the ICE group described above (EVs ~ 6,000 miles annually, ICE ~ 5,500 miles annually), and for petrol vehicles as a standalone fuel type (Petrol only ~4200 miles annually). However diesel, as a standalone fuel type, had a higher average annual mileage than electric