Is the electric car revolution running out of juice?

We’re in the middle of a perfect storm for electric cars this week. Not only has a planned battery factory for electric cars in the Northeast gone bankrupt, but rising energy prices have skyrocketed the cost of charging.

What’s more, supply of charging points is not keeping pace with demand, and a glut of Teslas has prompted the company to cut prices by up to £9,100.

It has led many people to wonder: Is the much-vaunted electric car revolution about to blow a fuse?

And all the while, ministers have decided that the sale of new pure petrol and diesel cars should be banned by 2030 (just seven years), with only fully electric cars being sold from 2035.

Goes bankrupt

This week the battery company Britishvolt, which was planning to build a factory in Northumberland, went bankrupt.

Why is this important? As countries around the world switch to electric cars, demand for them is increasing. So if a country like the UK wants to build more electric cars, it needs about six or seven car factories to deliver a million vehicles.

Currently, the battery factory supplying Nissan’s Sunderland factory is the only one in the UK. Without more factories, companies will have to import batteries, which may not be economically viable and could lead to the closure of car factories in the UK.

The United Kingdom is Europe’s second largest market, after Germany and ahead of France.

But the car industry is international and all countries will push hard for electric cars, of which there is a limited supply.

And if we don’t build them here, we could end up at the back of the queue when it comes to allocations. There are already waiting lists of up to a year for imported electric cars. And as costs and demand rise, so do prices.

Hoods

Meanwhile, Tesla has just lowered the prices of its cult electric cars. ‘Hurrah!’ you may think. “Time for a bargain.”

Well, anyone who buys now will definitely benefit. But those who just paid top dollar before the rebates feel outraged — and rightfully so.

If they buy on finance, as most people do, their monthly payments will not decrease. And there is a risk that they will be left with negative equity when their contract expires.

The cuts could also have a knock-on effect on residual values ​​in general, not just Tesla’s.

The biggest cut, announced late last week, concerns Tesla’s top-of-the-line Model Y Performance, which now costs £59,990, down from just over £69,000.

The starting price for the Tesla Model 3 starts at £42,990, with the biggest price drop for the Performance variant at £8,100.

This follows a large celebratory shipload of Teslas arriving in the UK in December, leading to Elon Musk’s battery-powered vehicles accounting for about one in eight of all car purchases that month.

Cost increase

Despite Tesla’s cutbacks, EV prices are generally skyrocketing; the last £1,500 government grant was abolished last summer; and the cost of living crisis coupled with rising inflation means motorists with modest means are struggling to go green.

Only three new electric cars available to buyers in the UK now cost less than £30,000. Two years ago the total was 15.

And according to one report, the entry price of some models has increased by 53 percent in that time.

The three all-electric models still below the £30,000 threshold are: the Chinese MG4 from £25,995; the Nissan Leaf from £28,995 and the Mini Electric from £29,000.

The biggest price increase was the Fiat 500e, which saw the price of the cheapest version rise from £19,995 to £30,645.

Even one-off budget brands like Kia charge premium prices, with variants of the new EV6 (which has a 12-month waiting list) costing more than £60,000, and the forthcoming EV9 expected to cost more than £70,000.

Lack of energy

Poor availability of charging points remains ‘an obstacle’ to the further acceptance of electric cars, says the Association of Motorcycle Manufacturers and Traders.

It adds: ‘The Government’s EV infrastructure strategy predicts the UK will need between 300,000 and 720,000 charging points by 2030.

“Meeting the lower number alone would still require more than 100 new chargers to be installed per day.

The current rate is around 23 per day.’ RAC analysis found that the cost of charging an electric car on the road has risen by almost 60 per cent in eight months, and that fast charging points were almost £10 more expensive than filling up a car with petrol. Motorists also pay 5 percent VAT on home chargers and 20 percent on public chargers.

Jaguar Land Rover has also warned ministers that proposed electric vehicle production targets could weaken them so much that plans for new models would have to be postponed or scaled back.