I’m keen to hear this as I reckon it’ll blow the savings on fuel and servicing completely out of the water.
This. In spades.
Here is the issue - the back, slapping political pledge to meet green targets led to the incentives for buyers of new EVs (as in Ewan's case). So a modest amount of early adopters found themselves in the ideal situation to take advantage - 100% deduction from corporation tax, 0% PIK (now risen to 2%), off street parking to allow home/office charging, a good tariff from pre-Ukraine/Russia conflict and probably access to an ICE vehicle to take away range anxiety.
Now the sales start to increase and our politicians can report great uptake of EVs and so on. Yah, we are saving the planet, let's fly in by private jet to a summit to congratulate ourselves.
BUT.....they next wave of buyers can't afford the increased price of an EV, plus there are no tax advantages in doing so. Add to that the issue that in some towns and cities, over 70% of people live in apartments and have no private off-street parking and now you hit an issue. That issue is that the 2nd wave don't want, can't afford and have no real incentive to buy an EV. So the 2nd hand market is small, supply outstrips demand and depreciation is running riot. See the Taycan for details.
There is no incentives from HMRC on anything except pure EV, that's a mistake too and out of line with most other EU countries. In reality, many journies are short and so plug-in hybrids that offer 30-40miles on EV, then resort to petrol are ideal for many and take away the issues of range anxiety, having an EV as an only car, expensive charging (there is less battery to charge) and so on. For example, my sister who is in Berlin, has a 530e touring and received tax incentives and discounts for buying it. She lives in an apartment with no charging (yet) but can charge on-street most of the time. Her car does around 40km pure electric then resorts to petrol but while using the petrol, it self-charges so if she drives from Berlin to Hamburg, she is EV until out of Berlin, petrol on the autobahn and then back to EV when she arrives in Hamburg. All very sensible.
Now add in LEZ and ULEZ schemes for major cities (coming soon to every town near you) and what happens is that you force the those that live in the zones to change car or suck up the fines. That actually hurts those that really can't afford an EV the most. It's a very poor election strategy. The underpaid nurse, teacher or janitor that use an older diesel to get to work are now being hammered, and they really can't afford to be.
Let's move to the EVs themselves. In the UK (and EU in general) we have a great car making tradition and many jobs supported by the automotive market. But, we have forced traditional manufacturers to make EVs and they are unable to catch Tesla on one hand, and China on the other. So the Chinese brands are making lower cost EVs and shipping them in, killing the EU automotive market. And they are doing this while ignoring any Co2 targets and laughing while the West strangles itself to offset the increase that China alone is creating, just to appease the back slapping that the EU and others have created for themselves. Additionally, Tesla is shipping in their technologically far more advanced vehicles and then dropping prices willy-nilly, forcing 2nd hand dealers to refuse to trade in EVs because with one sweep of Elon's hand, their entire stock could be in negative equity and they can't afford to risk that. Tesla are so far ahead of the big, traditional makers, that those guys have no real chance of catching up and remaining profitable at the same time. See Ford, GM etc for details.
Additionally, let's add in insurance which has increased for many (I appreciate, not for all). Why? That's because no bodyshop wants to repair a battery pack and so cars are being written off for less damage than before, leading to larger pay-outs and hence, higher insurance.
Even with all that considered, I have been looking at a small EV for local journies. We could use one for the school runs, trip to Sainsbury's and so on. I whittled it down to the Peugeot 308-e. Now, a new one is £35k or so (depending on spec) and I can offset it through my business. But a 2 year old one with 5k miles on it is £16k. So I will be "saving" 19k on tax but having a book asset that is dropping like a stone. So I have looked at getting a 2 year old one on a 3 or 4 year finance deal through my business.. Corporation tax will reduce, albeit by not as much and spread over a few years. PIK remains at 2% and I can re-charge some home charging costs back which reduces CT further etc. And I have an asset on the books etc etc.
Really, we will need to see HMRC and the Chancellor introduce incentives on 2nd hand EVs and Plug-ins before there is any transition past the early-adopters and into the masses.
But regardless, there is no way we would ever give up and ICE vehicle as we do regular trips of 500 miles and I'm not waiting around for charging. Forget it.
Regardless of the above, I am all for change. I believe that we need to be responsible for our own impact and that we must be aware and try to manage that impact. However, forcing change without sensible consideration is not intelligent and I fear that we are actually setting ourselves back while the science struggles to catch up with the promises of politicians.
If you've read this far, well done! Over and out.
