Is there a greater demand for electric vehicles than what the industry figures show? Lobby group says ‘skewed’ statistics downplay electric car sales

An electric car lobby group says ‘skewed’ sales data is undermining demand for electric cars in Britain.

Electric Vehicles UK, a campaign group set up to debunk “myths and lies” surrounding the electric car market, said reporting on registration figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders had downplayed the level of private demand for battery cars.

It comes just days after the SMMT and 13 carmakers wrote to the Chancellor calling for a new wave of incentives in the Budget to reduce the price of new electric cars in a bid to boost sales.

In the September registration update, the SMMT said: ‘Demand for electric vehicles with private batteries rose by 3.6 percent after unprecedented discounts from manufacturers, but this amounted to just 410 additional registrations.

“Consumer demand for diesel grew faster, rising 17.1 percent in September, a volume increase of 1,367 units.”

It later added: ‘Year-to-date private BEV (Battery electric vehicleDemand remains low at 6.3 percent – ​​underscoring the magnitude of the challenge of moving the mass market to meet imposed targets devised in very different economic, geopolitical and market conditions.

“Previous assumptions of a market that would deliver steady BEV growth, cheaper and plentiful raw materials, affordable energy and low interest rates have not materialized, as the upfront costs of BEV models remain stubbornly high.”

While the SMMT’s statements are said to indicate that private demand for electric cars is growing more slowly than diesel, the industry representative has admitted that the way it reports sales data does not give the full picture of battery car demand.

The problem lies in the way registrations are grouped into ‘private’, ‘fleet’ and ‘business’ sales – the three types of vehicle sales recorded by the SMMT.

In its September registration update, the SMMT said consumer demand for new diesel cars was ‘growing faster’ than for petrol models

The main driving force behind current electric car registrations is ‘salary sacrifice schemes’.

An EV salary sacrifice arrangement is an arrangement where an employee agrees to give up a portion of their pre-tax salary in exchange for their employer leasing an EV.

The employer then deducts the monthly lease costs from the employee’s salary, becoming a much cheaper option for switching to a battery car.

However, despite being decisions made by private consumers, these sales are categorized as fleet registrations and not as purchases by ‘private’ drivers.

Responding to an accusation of using incorrect representative data, the SMMT’s official to measure the numbers accurately.”

Electric Vehicles UK says the true scale of EV demand is reflected in figures around total sales across private, fleet and business markets.

Data shows that the number of EVs increased by 24 percent across all three registration options in September, reaching a monthly record of more than 56,300 units. This accounts for one in five (20 percent) of all new models on the road in the past month.

By comparison, diesel sales hit an all-time low, falling a further 7 percent year-on-year, while just 17,500 oil burners were purchased, equating to just one in 16 (6.4 percent) new cars.

As the SMMT registration data shows, diesel car sales fell by 7.1% in September and will fall by a total of 12% in 2024.

The EV lobby group said the trade body’s presentation of the data is a “misrepresentation of the numbers, which ignores the progress made by car manufacturers, discourages consumers from switching to electric vehicles and gives policy makers the impression that the transition is not working’. .

Andy Palmer, former boss at Aston Martin and Nissan (where he launched Britain’s first assembled EV, the Leaf) and now spokesperson on behalf of Electric Vehicles UK, said: ‘September’s figures show the UK electric vehicle market is now growing faster than in France or Germany.

‘Diesel’s market share has fallen this month, while battery-electric, hybrid and plug-in hybrid registrations have all increased.’

Dan Caesar, CEO of EVUK, added: ‘That the SMMT’s September statistics update – which should have been a moment of celebration with record volumes of EVs sold in Britain – was recast using skewed statistics as a win for diesel cars in a worrying trend in reporting.’

Mike Hawes, chief executive of the trade body, has said that ‘unsustainable’ industry-led price cuts to boost electric car sales had supported the EV market into 2024.

He added: ‘Despite this support, the market is still not moving at the pace that industry, government and society need.

“The glaring lack of government support for the private buyer is limiting demand to the point that other older and more polluting technologies continue to outpace electric cars. This is not a ‘victory’.”

Colin Walker, head of transport at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, also said in his comments on the SMMT’s presentation on private sales of electric vehicles that any idea that they would fall into decline was “completely incorrect” and “based on a number of heavily selected data’.

Ben Nelmes, CEO of independent transportation research organization New AutoMotive, described September’s EV market as “buzzing with life.”

He added: ‘Electric car registrations grew by almost a quarter in September, with one in five new cars being an EV. It’s great to see more people than ever switching to cleaner and cheaper driving.

‘Sensible government policy is the driving force behind a major British success story, with electric car registrations here outperforming the rest of Europe.

‘We are in a global race to get electric vehicles on the road and Britain is on the fast track.’

Despite the optimistic outlook for electric car demand, the SMMT and bosses from 13 major manufacturers recently wrote a letter to the Chancellor calling for a new wave of incentives to boost electric car sales.

In a letter to Rachel Reeves ahead of the Budget, car giants such as BMW, Ford, Toyota and Volkswagen said government targets are putting too much pressure on the sector at a time when private demand for electric vehicles is faltering.

Executives called for the introduction of new subsidies to boost sales as many car companies lag behind the binding requirements of the government’s Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) mandate.