More electric vehicles are being made by manufacturers than drivers want, one of Britain’s biggest car dealerships has said, as the Government tries to artificially force the market to move against consumer preferences. The Telegraph has the story.
Vertu Motors, which trades under brands including Bristol Street Motors, said supply of new and used electric models is outstripping demand, forcing manufacturers to slash prices in an effort to shift stock.
“Recent increased supply of new electric vehicles appears to be exceeding retail demand, creating an imbalance in pipeline inventory,” the company said.
“Manufacturers are reacting to this through the offer of discounted prices and supported finance rates to stimulate retail demand.”
Elon Musk’s Tesla is among the producers which have cut prices this year in a drastic attempt to boost sales.
Ministers are seeking to push drivers towards electric cars as part of the move to Net Zero, with policies including the Ulez (Ultra Low Emission Zone) in London, which levies a £12.50 daily charge on those with older petrol and diesel vehicles if they enter the capital.
Manufacturers have responded by ramping up the production of battery powered and hybrid vehicles.
Almost two in every five cars produced in the U.K. so far this year are electric or hybrid, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), an industry group, up from less than a third between January and July last year.
More than 200,000 such vehicles have been produced so far in 2023, the SMMT said, out of a total of almost 527,000 cars.
While total car production has risen by 14.2% on the year, the number of electric and hybrid cars made in Britain has almost doubled.
Worth reading in full.
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Unless the charging infrastructure improves so that it can service the number of cars produced, nobody in their right mind will buy an EV.
My question is: If one of the C40 Cities agendas is to reduce car ownership, is the lack of EV charging points a deliberate ploy to achieve that goal?
Reduce supply, constrain distribution points, escalate prices and taxes – force the peasants onto ‘EV buses or skateboards. Generate fake data on the benefits and how Gaia’s fever is reduced. I am sure horses will be culled as well just in case a toothless yeoman gets wrong think.
Or build 15 minute ghettos, around which walls.
They want us like we were in the former Yugoslavia all coughing and spluttering in the same bus or cycling in the wind and rain to work like good little commies. I was once in Belgrade in the 80’s and trust me it was not pleasant.
You could perhaps shorten your answer to just;
”nobody in their right mind will buy an EV”
I would certainly not want to buy one, a lot of the EVs in use are leased or on some subscription scheme, often as company cars. The nature of the technology is such that in my view it would be an unacceptable liability to actually own one. I am unlikely to ever be able to afford to lease one and so, like many, if they ban ICE cars? then EVs = the end of personal motoring for me.
… is the lack of EV charging points a deliberate ploy to achieve that goal?
Absolutely YES.
I have a hybrid company car (tax reasons) and it won’t charge up (not that I charge it up often anyway). It was in for a service yesterday at a main dealer and they didn’t even attempt to fix the issue – “as we don’t have any qualified technicians to fix the problem – you’ll have to take it to XYZ dealership”. Lack of suitably qualified electric vehilce technicians may well be another way to reduce / restrict vehicle use.
What a surprise.
Lack of chargers is not the problem.
First you need the power generation, then the grid infrastructure, then the charger network.
This cannot be done in reverse which is what the idiots in charge are trying to do and don’t seem to understand.
It’s physics.
First must come the ability to provide sufficient current safely, before plugging in the appliance, otherwise the fuses will blow.
True. Green Fascists aren’t good with maths, physics or common sense. Brave New World and all that.
My response to your question – Yes.
The SMMT figures are for cars produced in the UK. Not all of these will be sold in the UK. And it doesn’t include cars manufactured outside of the UK that are imported to be sold here. So whilst I don’t doubt that overall demand for EV’s is not as strong as the Government would like, basing any conclusions on the figures used in the article is a waste of everyone’s time.
Our economy does not pay people enough for them to afford electric cars.
Soon there will be electric car graveyards all over the globe, like these ones in China
https://www.thesun.co.uk/motors/23678607/graveyards-china-abandoned-electric-cars/
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/football-is-knee-deep-in-nonsense/
Taking the knee is still going on. Don’t TPTB love to see people on their knees?
Once these cars have reached their tenth anniversary, which seems to be roughly the life of these batteries, the cars will have no second hand value.
By the way OT, has anybody else noticed the massive increase in car insurance?
“By the way OT, has anybody else noticed the massive increase in car insurance?”
Mine went up 30% – way above rate of inflation – and that’s with an extra year’s no claims bonus, no change in any other relevant circumstances. I shopped around but that was best deal.
“Mine went up 30% – way above rate of inflation”
Another excellent way of culling the motorist population.
Indeed. Recent conversations with relative normies make me think that even normies are now realising there is a war being waged on motorists. Hopefully they will then make the connection and realise there is a war being waged on humans.
With you on that tof.
I spoke to a customer service agent the week before the bank holiday and I happened to mention it. He said it had shot yo in the last 6 weeks or so – that would put it around the begging of June when it started going up more than usual.
I prefer internal combustion to spontaneous combustion.
Not as if nobody predicted this.
But… what happened to their marketing? They must have been aware that the market would be niche, a few early adopters and useful eco-idiots with more money than sense and soon saturated. Their marketing must have told them there was insufficient infrastructure to make electric vehicles a viable alternative to ICE, and none being built, and the prices were higher than the market would bear.
So what deal did the automakers strike with Governments hither and yon?
They are all losing loadsa money. Ford US is closing down production and firing thousands from plants at home and abroad. BEVs are piling up unsold.
So something’s going on.
For my own amusement I recently made a list of EV problems, gleaned from various articles. There’s some overlap in this list, they’re in no particular order, and I may be a little unfair with certain items. Wondering if I’ve missed anything obvious out…
– affordability
– range anxiety
– charging time
– poor resale value
– reportedly increased insurance cost, probably subsidised by ICE vehicle customers
– insurance cost for mass transport (eg by sea – cf Fremantle Highway, Felicity Ace)
– higher repair cost
– higher likelihood of writeoff after minor damage
– multiple EVs must be stored with much more intervening space between them, eg when awaiting repair, due to fire risk
– battery cannot be economically replaced
– battery cannot be economically recycled
– battery capacity deteriorates
– fast charging aggravates battery deterioration, but no way of a second-hand purchaser knowing charging history
– an empty battery weighs as much as a full one, in contrast to liquid fuels
– competition for limited charging slots, eg on motorways
– requirement to buy expensive home charger for economical charging
– upgrade required to home electrical installation for fast home charging
– insufficient charging points countrywide, especially in remote areas
– many charging points out of action
– high voltages leading to risk of electrocution
– no reduction in overall emissions until high mileage is reached, and even then the true reduction is unclear
– need to upgrade entire country’s electricity distribution network
– fire risk in an accident
– battery pack fires very difficult to extinguish
– additional weight can cause greater accident damage
– exploitative labour practices to mine battery raw materials
– minor accidents can lead to writeoff, due to difficulty in assessing potential battery damage
– EVs recommended not to be towed, but rather carried on a low loader due to weight
– towing cost
– due to risk of distorting the chassis, some EVs cannot be jacked with a conventional jack, eg to change a tyre
– greater tyre wear due to additional weight
– tyres are more expensive
– higher incidence of punctures
– higher shedding of particulate matter from tyres
– greater road surface wear and tear
– reduced range in cold weather
– reduced range in very hot weather
– cost of charging sometimes no less than equivalent ICE fuel cost
– quick to 60mph but more limited top speeds than ICE
– almost no EVs carry a spare tyre (increasingly true also of ICE vehicles unfortunately)
– TESLA Autopilot risks
– sales rely on government subsidies and are often company cars
– because EVs are so new, buyers having to endure bugs still to be sorted out (eg “seats may catch fire” Hyundai issue )
– over reliance on China
– insufficient raw materials available on the planet to replace all existing ICE vehicles
Blimey. A terrific piece of work.
No consideration has been given to people who do not have a garage/carport or area in front/behind their house for a charging point.
My house in the Uk – sometimes I can park infront of my house but to plug a car in would mean a lead going along the ground – trip hazard.
Are the chargers lockable? If not I can easily see someone plugging their own car into my cable and me having to pay for the electric. What about people who live in blocks of flats? Where would the charging points be and how protected from theft would they be?
Just some of my thoughts on this useless bit of kit.
What is wrong with you? Don’t you realise the planet is starting to boil and we only have till next Tuesday to save it?
I just might be interested when they introduce a BOGOF offer so that I can store the second one to replace the battery of the first.
The Chinese are cleaning up in EV sales with their ‘MG’ brand.
Its great how good we are at shooting ourselves in the foot.
Government are interfering in every market. There interference and the picking of winners and losers means there are no Free Markets in anything remotely connected to the reducing of carbon dioxide, which many ordinary people think is about saving the planet. But CO2 is also something else. It is the one gas that can be directly tied to industrial capitalism and as the Schwab geezer pointed out about Industrial Capitalism “Isn’t it our duty to bring that about” when he was talking about its collapse being necessary to fight climate change.