Showing posts with label Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders. Show all posts

Sunday, April 3

Questions About Electric Cars


In less than eight years, the government plans to ban the sale of all new petrol and diesel cars and vans and as part of this shift is promising to expand the network of public charging points to 300,000.

This means, in order to help the UK meet its 2050 net zero target, electric vehicles (EVs ) will soon become the most common option for anyone wanting to buy a brand new car.

Among the 35 million cars driving around on UK roads just 1.3% were EVs in 2020 but that figure is starting to climb. Battery electric and hybrid cars accounted for nearly a third of new cars leaving dealerships last month, according to The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders. (SMMT).

But would-be buyers still have a lot of reservations.

BBC Radio 5's The Big Green Money Show asked listeners to send in their questions, here are their top five:

Why are electric cars so expensive?
Electric cars usually cost thousands of pounds more than their petrol, or diesel, counterparts. This is because EV batteries are expensive to make and a high level of investment is needed to transform existing factory production lines to manufacture the new technology.

However, costs are expected to come down in the near future: The SMMT forecasts electric and internal combustion engine cars should cost roughly the same "by the end of this decade."

Meanwhile, experts say you should also consider the total spend over the car's lifetime.

The cost of the electricity used to power your EV has been rising sharply recently and will vary according to your household tariff, but it is still cheaper than petrol or diesel fuel per mile.

Melanie Shufflebotham is the co-founder of Zap Map, which maps the UK's charging points. She says if an EV is charged at home "the average price people are paying is roughly 5p per mile". This compares she says, to a cost of between 15-25 pence per mile for petrol or diesel cars.  READ MORE...