Battery Electric Vehicle News / Enjoying the Transportation Revolution

JKenH

This hasn’t been well handled. Why let the rumours run for so long when it must have been putting people off buying a new EV?

Hopes of a new scrappage scheme reportedly offering up to £6,000 towards the cost of an electric car have been dashed now that the government appears to have rejected the idea.

https://www.rac.co.uk/drive/news/motoring-news/electric-car-scrappage-scheme-rejected-by-government-ministers/

Martyn1981

Carbon Commentary Newsletter extracts:

6, EV market share in Europe. The web site CleanTechnica carried an article showing that the share of EVs in the European car market rose to 7.8% - of which 4.3% were pure electric vehicles - in the first five months of 2020. This is more than double last year’s figure. This increase is partly driven by the dramatic fall in the overall car market but absolute sales of EVs actually rose in Europe in May. The boss of French manufacturer Citroen, part of PSA, commented in an interview ‘I wouldn’t be surprised if the market share of EVs moves towards 20% very, very rapidly’.

[My bold]

michaels

Martyn1981 said:

Carbon Commentary Newsletter extracts:

6, EV market share in Europe. The web site CleanTechnica carried an article showing that the share of EVs in the European car market rose to 7.8% - of which 4.3% were pure electric vehicles - in the first five months of 2020. This is more than double last year’s figure. This increase is partly driven by the dramatic fall in the overall car market but absolute sales of EVs actually rose in Europe in May. The boss of French manufacturer Citroen, part of PSA, commented in an interview ‘I wouldn’t be surprised if the market share of EVs moves towards 20% very, very rapidly’.

[My bold]

Thanks Martyn, not sure why I never thought of this before but it almost feels like you go through every EV news story.

Martyn1981

michaels said:

Martyn1981 said:

Carbon Commentary Newsletter extracts:

6, EV market share in Europe. The web site CleanTechnica carried an article showing that the share of EVs in the European car market rose to 7.8% - of which 4.3% were pure electric vehicles - in the first five months of 2020. This is more than double last year’s figure. This increase is partly driven by the dramatic fall in the overall car market but absolute sales of EVs actually rose in Europe in May. The boss of French manufacturer Citroen, part of PSA, commented in an interview ‘I wouldn’t be surprised if the market share of EVs moves towards 20% very, very rapidly’.

[My bold]

Thanks Martyn, not sure why I never thought of this before but it almost feels like you go through every EV news story.

Hiya. If you mean I see every story, then actually it's a no. I've avoided some sites like Electrek and EvNews etc, simply because I think I'll enjoy them too much and there just isn't enough time. If you mean I read all the stories I post, then yes, but not hard work, I love following the energy and transport revolutions, and genuinely feel very lucky to be living at a time when I can see them both, and even take part (PV & BEV). Posting links and a quick waffle afterwards is just my way of sharing the joy/optimism.

Martyn1981

June results for the UK are good, with 6% of sales being BEV's.

Tesla Model 3 Remains In Top 10 Autos In June As UK EV Market Share Hits 9.5%

zeupater

JKenH said:

This hasn’t been well handled. Why let the rumours run for so long when it must have been putting people off buying a new EV?

Hopes of a new scrappage scheme reportedly offering up to £6,000 towards the cost of an electric car have been dashed now that the government appears to have rejected the idea.

https://www.rac.co.uk/drive/news/motoring-news/electric-car-scrappage-scheme-rejected-by-government-ministers/

Hi

The issue is probably related to how effective an ICE 'scrappage' scheme would really be and therefore what the environmental impact would be ....

I'd suggest that the majority of people looking to lay out £25-60k on an electric vehicle wouldn't necessarily currently own & drive an ICE powered car with a market value significantly below £6k so as to make any such direct scrappage scheme worthwhile, so it's likely that we'd be talking about third & fourth household cars (kids etc) which are that close to being condemned to the scrap-heap that the scheme makes little sense as the vehicle was due to be scrapped and replaced with another pre-owned vehicle anyway ....

I'd rather see a scheme which promoted & supported EVs below a £threshold only and keep the threshold fluid with demand & market pricing & push costs (tax etc) onto business ICE ownership as this would tend to have a far higher impact on EV market expansion ... carrot & stick probably work well together in that carrots could be targetted at one end of the spectrum & big monetary sticks could be progressively used to 'convince' the other end of the market to comply ..... those that can't be weaned away from their big engine lumps can do their part for the environment by financing the carrots benefiting others .....

.... nice, probably looks as close to a 'perpetual motion' closed loop solution as anything else that's likely to be devised, with little (/no) impact on general taxation at that .... it's simply a matter of individual choice ..

HTH - Z

Ectophile

I would have gone for a £6000 scrappage offer.  I still have the car I bought in 2009 under the last scrappage scheme, and it's worth rather less than £6k.  With the scrappage discount, I didn't even pay £6k for it when it was new!

A little Seat Mii (under £20k OTR) would have done nicely, assuming I can actually get one.

zeupater

Hi

Wouldn't <£20k reflect inclusion of the £3k EV grant, so you'd really be looking for a scheme which wouldn't have any form of exclusivity clause ... ie £9k reduction on a £23k vehicle, approximately 40%! .....  nice if you could get it, but that's probably the very reason behind the initial idea being rejected ... 

HTH - Z

silverwhistle

JKenH said:

This hasn’t been well handled. Why let the rumours run for so long when it must have been putting people off buying a new EV?

I can't think of anything the current government has handled well. I never thought it was a goer for various reasons outlined here, but it was just one of those populist, good news stories that have been put about to give an impression of progress.

Anyway, my car is worth less than £1.5K, so I might have been a beneficiary, but I don't really do heavy depreciation.. As for small EVs like the Mii, eUp and Citygo they all appear to be sold out of their RH drive models. The manufacturers certainly aren't making the transition to EVs easy at the moment for the wider market.

Edited: to add that I'd prefer more funds into charging as that would make shorter range cars more viable for occasional longer runs as well as helping people without drives.

JKenH

silverwhistle said:

JKenH said:

This hasn’t been well handled. Why let the rumours run for so long when it must have been putting people off buying a new EV?

I can't think of anything the current government has handled well. I never thought it was a goer for various reasons outlined here, but it was just one of those populist, good news stories that have been put about to give an impression of progress.

Anyway, my car is worth less than £1.5K, so I might have been a beneficiary, but I don't really do heavy depreciation.. As for small EVs like the Mii, eUp and Citygo they all appear to be sold out of their RH drive models. The manufacturers certainly aren't making the transition to EVs easy at the moment for the wider market.

Edited: to add that I'd prefer more funds into charging as that would make shorter range cars more viable for occasional longer runs as well as helping people without drives.

I agree, it’s the charging infrastructure that needs the investment. I don’t like to see any government handing out cash to individuals  and as Z said it would have been going primarily to those who didn’t need the hand out. There will always be a few people like you who are committed to make the change to a greener world that could benefit but like the OLEV grant and FiT a lot of this money goes to people who don’t really need it. The average working (wo)man ends up paying for these handouts via their taxes and utility bills.