Only a quarter of electric car sales this year went to private buyers – despite the government’s promise to drivers to make the switch by 2030

Ministers were accused yesterday of ‘misleading’ the public about the popularity of electric vehicles when it emerged that less than a quarter are purchased by private motorists.

Industry data shows that only 24 percent of sales in the first six months of 2023 went to private buyers, with businesses buying the rest.

It is a blow to the government’s target of banning the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030, as convincing Britain’s more than 30 million motorists to make the switch is one of the biggest hurdles facing the country. faced.

Officials boasted that ‘one in five’ vehicles sold last year was a plug-in electric car, and that ‘electric car sales will overtake diesel sales for the first time in 2022’.

But critics said the industry’s numbers showed this was “misleading” because it obscures the fact that it’s mostly companies that are driving this.

It also led to growing calls for more financial support to help private buyers switch to electric vehicles if the 2030 ban is not delayed, as Britain is the only major European economy with no incentives for private buyers.

Electric vehicles have price tags as much as £10,000 more expensive than their petrol or diesel equivalents, making them out of reach for many troubled motorists.

Industry figures for January through June show that of the 152,968 electric vehicles sold, only 37,055 (24.2 percent) were purchased by private buyers.

A total of 106,697 (69.8 percent) were “fleet purchases” related to companies purchasing 25 or more electric vehicles at once in an effort to decarbonise their operations, such as taxi companies. Another 9,216 were bought by smaller companies.

Tory MP Craig Mackinlay, head of the Net Zero Scrutiny Group, said: ‘The generous capital deductions regime and low benefit-in-kind taxation applicable to electric vehicles are the reasons they are bought by fleet buyers and companies.

“It is an unsustainable tax fraud that has disrupted rational behavior.

EVs also remain deeply unpopular with private buyers due to range anxiety, high purchase prices, poor availability of charging facilities, and the total unknown of resale and second-hand value.

“It doesn’t help ministers to cover up the facts as they try to justify the idiotic proposal to ban new cars and vans with internal combustion engines by 2030.”

Howard Cox, founder of the FairFuelUK campaign, added: ‘As part of the government’s nonsensical, hugely expensive journey to Net Zero – specifically the draconian ban on the sale of new diesel and petrol cars by 2030 – they are trying telling us through their propaganda machine that Sales of electric cars among the general public are booming. This couldn’t be further from the truth and is misleading.

‘This is simply to promote a green dream. Private motorists are not lining up to buy or lease new electric vehicles because their purchase is exorbitantly expensive. Only well-financed companies can afford this.

“These figures show how absurd the government’s target for 2030 is.”

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is under increasing pressure to abandon the 2030 target due to concerns about cost to motorists and the slow rollout of publicly available chargers.

It comes after a poll for The Daily Mail conducted by Survation in July found that only 28 percent of the public think the 2030 ban is a good idea, compared to 53 percent who think it’s a bad idea.

And only 29 percent said they would be confident buying an EV to be the only vehicle to use based on current infrastructure. On the other hand, 39 percent would not be confident.

Official figures released last week show there were 44,020 publicly available EV chargers in the UK as of July 1. This was an increase from the 40,150 on April 1.

This means that about 43 new chargers are put into use every day.

However, to meet the government’s target of having 300,000 operational by 2030, about 110 would need to be built every day.

There is also huge disparity between regions, with 152 publicly available chargers per 100,000 people in London.

But there are only 39 per 100,000 in the North West, 43 per 100,000 in the East Midlands and 45 per 100,000 in Yorkshire and the Humber.

Publicly available chargers are crucial to comfortably meeting the government’s 2030 target, as an estimated 40 percent of households lack access to on-site parking, such as a private driveway.

This means they cannot install their own plug-in point at home and depend on publicly available plug-in points.

Ministers recently pushed for the ban to be finalized by 2030, but have indicated that they will instead look at ways to protect ordinary families from the huge costs of green policies, as part of an effort to next election to create a dividing line with Labour.

It will be one of the biggest challenges for new energy secretary Claire Coutinho, who replaced Grant Shapps last month.

Mike Hawes, CEO of industry organization The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, said: “Companies and fleets – unlike private buyers – benefit from tax incentives to switch to battery electric vehicles, so it is no surprise that they are the lion’s share of of today’s EVs. registrations.’

The Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management was contacted for comment.