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UK switching to electric vehicles discussion
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DelW
Established Member
- Joined
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But the vehicle in question has an option of a larger battery for users who want that. Some buyers may prefer to spend less on a smaller battery version if their use of it won't include many long trips.
It's not much different from (e.g.) Ford years ago building Capris with engines of 1.3, 1.6, 2.0 or 3.0 litres capacity. The 1.3L wouldn't pull the skin off the proverbial rice pudding, but it provided a low entry-level price, and was probably bought by a few people who wanted the look but not necessarily the performance.
In the past , car makers would sell 3-door and 5-door versions of a volume hatchback, a useful saving in purchase price if 3-doors suits your needs, nowadays I cannot think of any 3-door hatchbacks on sale,all are 5-doors, even the extreme budget end of the market, Dacia Sandero or Spring, all are 5-doors, no 3-doors
I think mini may do a 3 door version, however you are right that it is very much the car that nearly all other cars you can buy from new are solely 5 doors (or 3 doors only - probably mostly sports cars).
Snow1964
Established Member
March new car sales figures are out
Battery Electric 86,120 (22.4%)
Plug in electric PHEV 49,671 (13.0%)
Hybrid HEV 60,268 (15.8%)
Petrol 165,997 (43.6%)
Diesel 18,571 (4.9%)
So over 35% now battery or PHEV, and less than 50% pure fossil fuel
www.smmt.co.uk
Battery Electric 86,120 (22.4%)
Plug in electric PHEV 49,671 (13.0%)
Hybrid HEV 60,268 (15.8%)
Petrol 165,997 (43.6%)
Diesel 18,571 (4.9%)
So over 35% now battery or PHEV, and less than 50% pure fossil fuel
UK New Car Registration Data - Latest Figures & Statistics | SMMT
Discover the latest UK car registration data: new car registration statistics, the number of cars in the UK, and more.
www.smmt.co.uk
"Jaecoo 7 becomes Britain’s best-selling car in March 2026."
I'm not surprised by this headline, I've seen dozens of them near me.
www.motoringresearch.com
I'm not surprised by this headline, I've seen dozens of them near me.
Jaecoo 7 becomes Britain's best-selling car in March 2026
The Jaecoo 7 usurped the Ford Puma as Britain’s most popular new car in March 2026, with more than 10,000 examples of the SUV registered.
www.motoringresearch.com
I wonder if it's just that ICE owners are driving less right now? I certainly seem to be experiencing the same as you (well, not so much 26 plate but EVs in general and many are 2024-2026 plates).
Or you both happen to live in areas that have disproportionately large numbers of EV owners?
Lloyds siding
Member
I supect that for households with a choice between EV and ICE vehicles, the EV is used for the majority of everyday journeys because they are short.
I’m sure there’s something in that, however my observation of the high proportion of 26s being EVs is not just where I live, but also across the region and in the Midlands too.
martin butler
Member
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- 9 Oct 2018
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Someone I know, in the bottom flat, where I live has just got one, At first I didn't know what it was, looks like a cloned Land Rover, His is a hybrid, I'm seeing more around here, they only have two models being imported at the moment, the land rover like SUV, being the most popular it would seem."Jaecoo 7 becomes Britain’s best-selling car in March 2026."
I'm not surprised by this headline, I've seen dozens of them near me.
Jaecoo 7 becomes Britain's best-selling car in March 2026
The Jaecoo 7 usurped the Ford Puma as Britain’s most popular new car in March 2026, with more than 10,000 examples of the SUV registered.
Or, 78% are still full/partial fossil fuel and only 1-in-5 new vehicle buyers are purchasing fully electric.
A lot of employers now have switched to electric for employee leasing schemes, I happen to be one of those. I got a car last year, it is all serviced and maintained, which is great. Also EV's don't look like EV's like years ago, where before Tesla were on the scene, it was the fugly G Wiz runabout or the Leaf. So, although manufacturers may be scaling back on making EV's, Salary Sacrifice schemes will always find such cars a home.
We might see if the Iran war starts up again in a couple of weeks and if that has affected oil prices which puts some off ICE at the moment...
March new car sales figures are out
Battery Electric 86,120 (22.4%)
Plug in electric PHEV 49,671 (13.0%)
Hybrid HEV 60,268 (15.8%)
Petrol 165,997 (43.6%)
Diesel 18,571 (4.9%)
So over 35% now battery or PHEV, and less than 50% pure fossil fuel
UK New Car Registration Data - Latest Figures & Statistics | SMMT
Discover the latest UK car registration data: new car registration statistics, the number of cars in the UK, and more.
I strongly suspect that many company cars, salary sacrifice schemes and those doing higher mileage are going for EVs. Therefore although the percentage of 26 plates may only be 20-25% region they are on the road for a much higher proportion of the time compared to their lower mileage ICE compatriots.
Could be that as you say. TfL only Salary Sacrifice on EVs, not sure about the other big employers in the country.
Although our anecdotal evidence appears to suggest there's more EVs being seen on the roads, it's worth remembering that registrations don't necessarily equal sales, so there may be some slight manipulation of the figures.
Snow1964
Established Member
That tends to balance out over time, might be some pre registrations but they will get resold.
At current prices petrol and diesel is around 18 times overnight electricity. At those differentials a person spending £150 per month on fuel (£1800 per year) will only be paying £9 per month going electric, and saving roughly £1700 per year.
There is no guarantee petrol, diesel and electricity prices will stay at those differentials, but in 7 years might be saving £10k in fuel, and that makes switching look good if electric car premium is only few thousand
Someone spending that much on fuel is doing above average mileage, so would likely have been considering going EV anyway.
The trick is to get EVs down to the price where they make financial sense even for someone like myself where petrol costs are more like £20/month and I have no access to home charging.
Sub £300 a year in fuel at 10p a mile (likely require a hybrid or a small diesel car) would mean a total drive distance of 3,000 miles a year or an average of 58 miles a week or an average of about 10 miles each way to work, assuming a 4 working days of travel a week.
Likelihood is that there'll be some other travel (evenings, weekends, holidays, etc.) and so for many in that scenario owning a car is unlikely to be cost effective.
At £1,800 (half the annual average cost of a car) could give the option of £400 a year of other travel costs and allow the purchase of an e-bike for 10 miles each way to work (would likely be able to do the whole distance each day using only electric with little to no peddling) with the cost paid over 3 years.
The other option would be to take a £1,900 pay cut, so have the £400 budget for other travel and get a job closer to home and be able to walk (yes I know that £1,900 and £400 is way more than the assumed £1,800 cost of car ownership, however that's due the tax paid on the extra income - if you are considering total pension contributions the pay cut may not be quite that high).
I don’t commute in my car. Perhaps I might be better off finding other ways to travel for the journeys I do make, but there is a degree of being willing to pay for the convenience of having a vehicle that is available so flexibly.
With relatively low ongoing costs there’s less opportunity to make savings compared to fuel, so the capital cost is much more important.
Indeed, I also fully understand that sometimes there's reasons why car ownership is necessary (however this is a reason why better public transport is also a good thing - although still wouldn't cover all users).
It's a shame that there aren't more car club vehicles, as where they are they can reduce the number of cars owned, fairly typically they can reduce car ownership locally by 10 cars (range is quoted as 5 to 27) for each vehicle provided.
That's because they allow people to have access to car for just in case situations.
Yes there's a risk that it's in use when needed, but that's still fairly unlikely unless something comes up at sorry notice and is time critical, then a taxi is an option - if there were more it might be that there are others within a 20 minute walk which reduces that risk. If the car is well used so that such a situation were to arise, then it is likely that the companies would be adding capacity in those areas.
The other thing, is that emissions are likely to lower due to:
- users being more likely to use other low carbon modes compared to the English average
- including reducing the total driven mileage by an average of 185 (I believe this may be a net figure and so accounts for those with no car previously now have mileage done by car and the fact that typically driving requires the car to be returned to a bay or local area)
- the fact that all car club cars are under 5 years old (and so would typically be newer and more efficient than many of the cars available to the users previously) and in 2024 30% are EV's (compared to about 5.5% of the total national fleet currently)
Snow1964
Established Member
That approach might work in cities with lots of public transport, but there are millions who live where there is sparse or no public transport, and driving a few miles to do basics like getting groceries, getting to hospital etc need a car.
Car clubs only work in urban areas too, and of course deliveroo and uber eats etc apply geographic restrictions and won't deliver to thousands of towns, so driving becomes a norm away from the city.
Interestingly the rural grey pound seems to be embracing electric cars, little maintenance, no nearby fuel stations, home charging, doddle to drive, all contribute, as do manufacturers closing down smaller dealerships so any former brand loyalty has gone.
What you say is perfectly true, and I don't recall ever saying any of the following in any of my posts:
- the UK doesn't need any cars other than car club cars
- everyone can use public transport
- everyone can walk (up to 3 miles each way*)
- everyone can cycle 10 miles
* note, walking 3 miles each way is something the government does say should be possible for nearly all children over the age of 8 to access schools, with children under this age the distance reduces to 2 miles - I've argued in a paper to the transport select committee that these distances should include at least a minimum percentage which can be used by a child cycling and the whole route be suitable to be able to push a cycle along it (would also make it easier for other people with mobility aids, including babies and toddlers as well the more traditional view of someone in a wheelchair, to use parts of these types for their travel).
In fact where I talk about reduced car use I often refer to the congestion benefits of a reduction of 2% and 10%, for example 2% of 10,000 miles (average car user is around 7,300 miles in a year), would equate to switching out an average of 4 miles a week.
For those doing lower milage (less than 4,000 miles a year) typically they could be driving as little as 3 miles each way to get to work (even WFH 2 days a week would still make this number as little as 5 miles each way).
Therefore for those people it could be easier to hit a 10% reduction, as whilst they would be an average of 8 miles a week they are also likely to be commuting shorter distances
Due to this being an average, it's possible to cycle for 6 weeks at some point between Easter and the school dinner holidays, or the equivalent of 6 weeks when the weather is warm (between 12 and 17 degrees Celsius), dry and low wind speeds (at least going to work).,
Car clubs can work in rural areas, or do places with a population of up to 10,000 people (government definition of what is rural) too small to support a car club car?
Whilst it's hard to get numbers of settlements which meets this definition, of the 17% of people classed as rural about 9% (5.1 million of the 9.7 million classed as rural in England - other UK nations are more likely to be rural) live in larger rural settlements (7,500 to 9,999 people) and 8% (4.6 million) live in smaller places, even then there's still going to be a number of places with populations measured in 10's of hundreds (I'm thinking over 2,500 people and quite possibly a bit smaller, although much below 1,500) where car clubs could still work.
Yes those people in places where there's up to 150 houses and maybe a post office and definitely those places where it's just the odd house (a very typical image if people are thinking rural) are certainly not going to justify car clubs, however in terms of the total population they make up quite a small amount (about 2.2%) of England's population (total population 58 million vs up to 1.7 million in locations with less than 150 people).
As I said, likely to different in Scotland and Wales, with the rural population likely to be in higher percentages. However, other than where these are close to cities and large towns they are also less likely to be causing congestion or resulting in poorer air quality.
As such it's perfectly reasonable not to try things which would be known not to work (car clubs, buses and trains - although in some locations they could still benefit from better walking and cycle facilities, even if a cycle path is hardly used by cycles it benefits pedestrians).
Walking facilities in rural locations could even be focused around leisure routes, as that could also attract people to access the countryside. For example a route from a large-ish place along a route could then provide a useful route between places and homes along the route, even if almost no one from the lightly populated areas goes to the larger settlement using it, if it's suitable for cycling all the better.
In doing so the smaller places may benefit from tourists and day tripers but not necessarily have to deal with quite so many parked cars which that number of visitors could generate if they were wanting to visit that location.
I’d be interested in the source for that and similarly any heat maps or demographics as my location bears no resemblance to it.
On my own rural street where 50% of the households that I know are aged 50+, the breakdown is,
16 full ICE powered vehicles
1 full/part electric (a ‘grey’ household)
Whilst my parents have an EV my in-laws have a Mild Hybrid.
My dad is often ahead of the curve with green things (I now have a child of a similar age to me when my parents got solar water panels) and it wasn't long after I moved out that they got solar panels for electricity.
Likewise when they moved house recently, they maxed out on solar panels (helped by the fact the roof needed redoing) got the most insulation they could and got an ASHP.
Peter Sarf
Established Member
It would be very interesting to see the relative mileages of EVs an ICEs. Even more interesting over the last decade. I expect a lot of the environmental gains of EVs will be (are being) achieved by high usage EVs. The remaining ICE users might at some stage account for a very insignificant part of potential environmental gains.
I agree. The heavier car users are more likely to see EVs as a benefit right now. Eventually the price of an EV might match that of an equivalent ICE or even become cheaper (depends on battery cost I suppose and the complexity of an ICE engine). Then I reckon the only hurdles will be how good a 10+ year old EV is and (perhaps less importantly) the lack of home charging for those with no drive.
Years ago I took a pay cut for a job very close to home (17 minutes walk). Initial motivation was for a better chance for my career but I soon worked out I was saving more in commuting costs than I lost in pay. It did mean my credit rating perhaps looked poorer (les money coming in in the days when expenses were not takin into consideration). I was also saving around two hours per day - I was getting home from work so early I was left wondering what to do !.
That really made car ownership a borderline expense for me. But that was living in London.
Anyway the less mileage a car owner drives then the less of an issue fuel costs are (Electricity versus Motion-Lotion).
A little over a year old but the best I could find EVs are officially covering more miles than ICE cars
444 miles is not a vast difference though so wouldn't really change the numbers you see on the road.
I think the factors that influence how many EVs are seen on the road are (personal opinion only):
- Slight confirmation bias of green strip number plate
- More mileage done on local / city roads than on Motorways, you are more likely to see and note other cars on local roads in proportion to the number of cars on the road. (e.g. you identify cars going in the opposite direction in 30mph zones but not on motorways)
- More concentration of EVs in certain areas of the UK. (There isn't a huge difference in EV ownership over areas, except in NI)
That's quite low down the priority. Better to migrate one person doing 20,000 miles a year than 10 people doing 1500 miles a year.
A couple months later in July 2025 there was this: https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/news/367398/roll-over-diesel-evs-are-now-doing-big-mileage-uk
> Research from the RAC Foundation shows that the average electric car under three years old will rack up 10,054 miles per year. That’s much more than the equivalent petrol car, which will typically only cover around 7,585 miles annually.
That's a fairly big difference for new cars. Diesel Is still higher than EV at 10,700 miles per year.
Assuming plugin comes under battery, and hybrid hev under petrol, and using the figures upthread
Diesel: 18,571 * 10700 = 198M
Electric+PHEV: 135,791 * 10054 = 1365M
Petrol+HEV: 226,265 * 7585 = 1716M
So electric would be 42% of miles of new cars, rather than 35%
If "hybrid hev" was classed under electric that would reduce petrol miles to 1,259M and increase electric to 2,097M, making electric nearly 60% of new car mileage
Or more likely doing a one or two 30-50 mile round trips each week and not driving the rest of the time.
That’s the average across EVs of all ages so will include a lot of Leafs, Zoe’s and other early small EVs which will largely be treated as ‘city’ or second cars now. The point is that new 26 plate EVs will likely to be higher mileage cars than their ICE equivalents so are more likely to be visible on the road than the pure sales figures would suggest.
Whilst I'm a convert to EVs (I'm not quite sure I can pull off an EV for my next car but it's certainly in the mix!) the one thing that does annoy me is that the public charging infrastructure is so ludicrously app based and requiring an account to boot. I think that's one of the things that eventually put my mum off getting an EV a couple of years ago (as an EV was a strong contender). Has there been any progress in getting us to a world where you can just use a card on a terminal like you do at a petrol station when charging on public infrastructure?
Obviously ideally you'd charge at home (particularly with a solar and battery installation meaning the electricity could be had almost for free!) but there will always be times when you need to top-up away from home for whatever reason and needing to faff around with an app is an annoying friction point!
Obviously ideally you'd charge at home (particularly with a solar and battery installation meaning the electricity could be had almost for free!) but there will always be times when you need to top-up away from home for whatever reason and needing to faff around with an app is an annoying friction point!