Battery Electric Vehicle News / Enjoying the Transportation Revolution

JKenH

What’s promising is that private buyer demand is up by 17%. There is no indication of how the private market was split by fuel type but there have been anecdotal reports of private buyers reacting to the fuel crisis and going electric. Fleet sales will be much more prone to normal renewal cycles so, as suggested, there may not have been quite the same immediate reaction.

I was surprised by the subdued tone of the SMMT in their press release:

The gradual shift in consumer demand for new technologies continues to reshape the market. Registrations of petrol and diesel cars fell by -7.1% and -2.2% respectively, as electrified vehicles gained ground. Hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) uptake rose 1.8% and plug-in hybrid deliveries grew 23.9% to take an enlarged 13.8% market share. Battery electric vehicle (BEV) uptake, meanwhile, increased 34.2% to take 27.3% of the market, the highest recorded so far in 2026.

Despite recent momentum, however, the transition to zero-emission mobility remains well behind the mandated trajectory. Year-to-date, BEVs account for just 23.9% of the market, well short of the 33% required in 2026. While various flexibilities can be drawn upon to help meet the regulation, this widening gap between mandated targets and consumer demand is increasing pressure on manufacturers which must try to absorb the rising costs of compliance.

In the , published this week, Government envisages EVs comprising 95% of the new UK car and van market by 2030 – an ambition well beyond the targets set by the mandate of 80% for cars and 70% for vans. If such targets are to be credible (and a tripling of EV demand in three years is highly unlikely under current outlooks) then equally ambitious fiscal and investment support would be essential. A holistic review of the transition is urgently needed, therefore, else the investment proposition of the UK is undermined, consumer choice constrained, and the pace of fleet renewal – essential to cutting road transport emissions – curtailed.

New car market grows as consumers respond to choice and incentives - SMMT

SMMT had for years been really bullish about BEV growth but perhaps the UK motor manufacturing industry is reining them in to protect their interests and secure reduced targets in the ZEV mandate.

I don’t know about anyone else but expressions like the “seventh Carbon Budget” send a chill down my spine. That’s sounds more like the language of totalitarianism, something that might come out of Russia or China with their 5 year plans etc. (That isn’t intended to be a party political comment as these 5 year budgets have spanned various parliaments, just an uncomfortable feeling that, under whoever is in charge, we are lurching further and further into state control of our lives.)

Magnitio

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82022875#Comment_82022875

Would you prefer that we just ignore the impact our carbon emissions are having on the climate and let people do what they want?

JKenH

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82023129#Comment_82023129

Presumably it is my comment about that the seventh Carbon Budget which has energised you.

What would you like me to say in answer to your question? Yes? Start a new thread (or copy your post to the Alternative Green Energy thread) if you want to discuss it, don’t derail this one.

Sadly you missed my point. It was a throwaway observation - without trying to take this thread off topic here is a short explanation:

It was not about carbon. I would have felt the same if the government had just issued their seventh Chocolate Budget. It sounds so much like the sequentially numbered 5 year plans of China or old Soviet Russia. The point is that without realising it we are using the language and adopting the bureaucratic policies of centralised technocratic states. We are sleepwalking into an Orwellian nightmare. That’s what makes me shudder.

silverwhistle

Perish the thought we should do any strategic planning as a nation. Don't worry, if Reform get in they'll do exactly as they're told by their overseas funders and that will be even more of an Orwellian nightmare..