The launch of several key new electric vehicles in the UK has triggered a surge in electric vehicle sales. Who is buying an electric car? Can they easily charge?
Speaking at the Low Carbon Vehicles Conference at the CENTRE of Excellence for Low Carbon and Fuel Cell Technology (CENEX) in the UK in September 2021, Mike Hawes, CHIEF Executive of the Uk Automotive Industry Lobby Group Automakers and Traders Association (SMMT), said: "We need to increase the acceptance and use of electric vehicles, and this means addressing their economics, infrastructure and ease of use. "If we are to accelerate the transition over the next 4 to 5 years, there will still be financial incentives for consumers, and possibly on a larger scale."
Gary Cook of the Zero Emission Vehicles Office makes the same point: "Change can happen quickly, and it needs to happen quickly. "With the 2030 lockdown on internal combustion engines looming, has the UK made enough progress on the road to electric vehicles? We analyzed market trends and interpreted 7 key milestones for 2021.
Because there are so many options,
Electric car buyers are spoiled
Should the automotive industry go all out on electric vehicles? This "chicken or egg first" debate was resolved in 2021. We test-drove nearly 30 pure electric vehicles, ranging from economy products such as Vauxhall's Mokka-e to millions of pounds of explosive supercars such as the Lotus Evija, Remark Nevera and Pininfarina Battista.
Take a look at the boring statistics from SMNT: in the first 11 months of 2021, the UK's pure electric vehicle sales have surpassed diesel vehicles. At the time of writing, electric vehicles will sell more than 170,000 units, up from 108205 in 2020. But it should also be soberly seen that the increase has fallen from twice the previous year to only double.
Add to that more than 100,000 plug-in hybrids — despite no government incentives — and by November, plug-in models had captured 17.5 percent of the market. SMNT estimates that manufacturers already offer at least 115 zero-emission models in the UK.
What is the most popular electric car?
The Tesla Model 3 is the UK's most beloved electric car in 2021, with more than 25,000 on the list in the first 11 months of 2021. In other words, sales of this single model are already comparable to the total sales of Mazda, Renault or Honda in the UK. Both kia Niro and Volkswagen ID.3s broke the 10,000-unit mark to become the 2nd and 3rd in the January-November sales chart. The other two players in the top 5 are the Nissan Leaf and the Audi Q4 e-Tron.
High-end brands dominate the plug-in hybrid market, the largest number of brands is the BMW 3 Series, followed by 9 models from Mercedes-Benz, Volvo, Audi, BMW and Land Rover, as well as Ford's Kuga.
Who is buying an electric car?
In the number of plug-in models, corporate procurement accounts for two-thirds. Stephen Briers, editor-in-chief of Fleet News, a key outlet in the industry, said: "Many large institutions have set ambitious targets to turn their entire fleet of passenger cars and vans into zero-emission models by 2025. ”
We're not surprised that retail for individual consumers is lagging behind: Despite Hawes's call for more incentives, the government has continued to cut subsidies for plug-in models. In December, the subsidy amount fell to £1,500 (£3,000 less than in the past) and was only for models that sold for no more than £32,000. In Germany, consumers can apply for a subsidy of 9,000 euros when buying models under 40,000 euros. Electric vehicles in the UK are exempt from road taxes, but the amount of the tax is negligible compared to the Incentives in Germany.
In addition to the two benefits of subsidies and tax exemptions, corporate buyers can also deduct the full cost of newly purchased electric vehicles from the company's pre-tax profits. In addition, the company can also deduct 130% of the price of electric vehicle charging equipment.
The Treasury's benevolence doesn't just apply to costs of capital: corporate eviction drivers can exempt thousands of pounds of personal car taxes by switching to electric or plug-in hybrids. Briers asked: "If you buy a £40,000 electric car and it's only around £100 a month in taxes, why not?" ”
Fiscal incentives are undoubtedly affecting the vehicles purchased by companies. Andrew Doyle, managing director of Audi UK, said: "Sales of our full-size e-Tron are now 'easily surpassing' the Q7 7 7-seater SUV. Even with tight supply, we sold more than 6,000 Q4 e-Trons in just 6 months. ”
When you go out, is it convenient to charge electric vehicles?
With the rapid development of the electric vehicle market and the continuous improvement of endurance (Mercedes's EQS, although priced at 99,995 pounds – from 1,079,600 yuan in China – has set a new benchmark for 720 km), the key battleground now is public charging. The UK government has invested £1.3 billion in the construction of electric vehicle infrastructure, mainly to add thousands of charging piles along major roads.
Hawes said: "The biggest obstacles for consumers are range anxiety, charging convenience and user experience (when using charging piles)." According to the map app Zap-Map, 7,313 new charging piles were added in the first 50 weeks of 2021, bringing the total number of charging devices in the charging network to 28,279.
200 million kWh
The annual electricity consumption of public charging in the UK,
20% of power supply capacity
What worries SMNT is that this construction speed still can't keep up with the sales speed of electric vehicles: some data show that a charging pile today has to afford 16 electric vehicles, compared with 1:11 in 2020. There are currently more than 500,000 plug-in models on UK roads, and while most journeys can be charged on 230,000 home chargers or around 20,000 workplace charging devices, there are still fears of queuing during peak periods.
BP Pulse, which operates one of the UK's largest charging networks, believes that the growth rate of the most commonly used ultra-high-speed fast charging piles is keeping pace with the speed of acceptance of electric vehicles. In November, the company's network provided 3.5 gigawatt-hours of public charging, equivalent to around 16 million kilometres of zero-emissions, and London's busiest charging pile was used 30 times in 24 hours. Public charging consumes millions of kilowatt-hours of electricity each year, but BP estimates that the usable capacity of the entire UK public infrastructure is five times the current actual amount.
A major challenge for the UK automotive industry is to move from its current engineering development and supply base, which is dominated by internal combustion engines, to electric vehicles. Some of the big announcements in 2021 began the process. Vauxhall's Port Ellesmere plant will only assemble electrified vans from 2022.
Nissan said it will replace the Leaf with a compact electric crossover around 2024, whose batteries will be supplied by Britain's first 1 gigawatt-hour "Gigafactory," which will be built in partnership with China's Envision Power. Luxury car brands will also turn to electric vehicles: the first zero-emission Rolls-Royce will be launched in 2023, the battery-electric version of the Range Rover will be launched in 2024, and Bentley's first pure electric vehicle will be launched in 2025.
What is the situation in the United States?
New President Joe Biden has sparked a profound shift in U.S. climate policy, hoping to pave the way for a 40 to 50 percent market share of electric vehicles by 2030. About 15 million new cars will be sold in the U.S. in 2021, but electric vehicles account for only 3%, with the best-selling Tesla Model Y. Local automakers are going all out, with GM planning to invest $35 billion by 2025 and promising to launch 30 electric vehicles worldwide; Ford has had to set a deposit cap on the electric version of america's best-selling pickup truck, the F150 Lighting, because at least 200,000 people have expressed their intention to buy, which is remarkable. Ford also showed how to keep the backbone of American automotive culture, the aftermarket engine, up to date: They offered a 285-horsepower electric motor for the lateral layout of the engine.
Is Asia leading the way?
China is the world's largest market for electric vehicles, with sales comparable to that of Europe as a whole: about 2.3 million units were sold in the first 11 months of 2021 (11% market share). Japan, by contrast, is dwarfed by a country that is less ambitious in terms of carbon reduction goals than the European Union, the United States and China. In 2020, the Japanese will buy only 15,000 electric vehicles. However, there are two important announcements that should change that.
Nissan has pledged to launch 15 electric vehicles by 2030, and expects half of its sales to be electrified by then. Toyota expects to deliver about 3.5 million electric vehicles a year by 2030 – Toyota is an industry pioneer in hybrid technology and hydrogen fuel cells, but has been slow to move on pure electric vehicles. Considering Toyota's size (9.56 million units sold worldwide in the first 11 months of 2021, surpassing the Volkswagen Group's 8.88 million units for the whole year), this is undoubtedly a major move.
Like other players in the automotive industry and consumer behavior, Toyota is changing rapidly. Multiple electrification measures in 2021 prove this.
Text: Translated by Phil McNamara/ Shang Hongxin