“Electric it is an imperfect solution until all the electricity we are getting is from renewable sources”.
The first electric vehicle was invented over 100 years ago in the 19th century, long before the mass adoption we are seeing now. Fast forward to today as of February 2025 there is now over 1.4 million EV cars on UK roads, which equates to just over 4% of registered vehicles in the UK according to ZapMaps.
Work has been done by governments and manufacturers to bridge the gap between petrol and electric cars, but have they been successful?
One of the main talking points in the UK automotive industry is the goal of reaching net carbon zero by 2050 and stopping the production of all petrol and diesel vehicles by 2030. Pledges have been made by both the Conservative and Labour parties to reach this target but whether this mandate can be achieved remains to be seen. I spoke to Erin Baker, 46, an automotive journalist who has over 25 years of experience under her belt on where the industry needs to progress. She believes that the UK government holds the key to converting more people towards electric cars.
She said: “I think the government is the difference between mass adoption in the next five years and mass adoption in the next 10 years, so we will see where it ends up”.
In recent years the government have made increased efforts to make the automotive industry in the UK eco-friendlier and more sustainable. In the November 2024 budget, the Labour government pledged a £200 million investment to charging infrastructure and rapid charging points. There are now almost 80,000 charging points country wide.
Although the government are taking positive steps the automotive industry still faces challenges ahead. Erin believes they need to do more if they want to achieve their net zero carbon emission goals.
In April of this year new legislation was brought into effect that meant electric car owners would now have to pay the same road tax as petrol or diesel drivers. This is something Erin believes is an added reason people will not convert.
“The electric car supplement tax is huge and means that electric car drivers from April are going to be paying an extra kind of 600 quid a year in road tax. Those kinds of things really deter people”, said Erin.
However, David Wilson Green, 58, who is Customer Service and After Sales director of Mazda UK disagrees.
He said: “Internal combustion engine registrations costs went up quite drastically in April as well, so I think it is all relative.”
He added: “If you compare the road fund licence on an equivalent ICE then it is more expensive. I think ultimately if someone wants an EV, they will still buy an EV”.
There is also the added problem of cost that the EV market faces. In the UK most hybrid and electric vehicles do not come cheap. The average price of a new electric car in 2024 was £46,000 which is considerably more than petrol, a 24% differential in fact but is an improvement of 10% on the year before.
The second-hand market is the area that seemingly lags significantly behind its combustion engine counterparts. In the UK alone, eight million cars are sold second hand every year, this is compared to just 1.9 being bought new but a small proportion are electric or plug in hybrids just 188,000 according to Heycar statistics.
This is something Erin believes can be improved with government support and market leading experts. “We have been lobbying the government and Auto Trader to get to grips with this battery health certificate and to standardize something that consumers can look at to give them confidence”, she said.
Scepticism remains on the quality of second-hand cars and their battery life, when in fact it currently stands at eight-year warranties. It would represent a new market for potential EV buyers and an added way of getting more UK drivers on the road with electric vehicles.
However. the importance of the Chinese market cannot be forgotten either with the likes of BYD surpassing Tesla in sales for the first time. The increased competition could mean lower prices and more affordable for more people in the future.
“The landscape in 2019, we had 45 OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturer) in the UK, selling cars. This year we are going to be 70 OEMs”, said Erin.
Although this could drive prices lower, David is concerned by the Chinese dominance in the market. He said: “The share of traditional manufacturers will slump if the Chinese get a foothold, and I am not sure that is what the industry needs right now”.
While it remains unclear if the UK government’s mandates are achievable in such a short period of time, the automotive industry is continually evolving and needs build upon the progress it has made otherwise it will stagnate.
