Pixie Energy analyst Tom Lusher said: “Despite contending with the disruptive effect of Brexit, legacy confusion over fuel types following the ‘dieselgate’ scandal, and recent uncertainty in the fleet space over future company car tax, electric vehicle (EV) sales have soared since the beginning of 2019-20.
“Interestingly, over the same period diesel sales have fallen, down to 22.6%. Some may have expected this gap to be filled by petrol power trains. However, EVs – in particular BEVs [battery-powered EVs] – have stepped into the breach, making up the shortfall to some extent on total sales. In fact, sales for BEVs for the year-to-date for 2019 now stand at 25,072, significantly more the 15,472 sold in the entirety of 2018.
“There are several reasons behind the increased uptake of BEVs. The closure of the plug-in car grant to PHEVs [plug-in hybrids] by the Office for Low-Emission Vehicles led directly to an increase in BEV sales, which still receive a grant of £3,500 ($4,520). As well as this, developments in EV manufacturing are beginning to push the costs of BEVs downwards.
“Moving forward, the change to company car tax rates – 0% for zero-emission vehicles from April 2020 – will likely drive BEV sales higher. This is due to … fleets purchasing between 50% and 60% of new cars each year in the U.K. EV market share is therefore only likely to increase from here on in.”
