Commercial Sector Fails to Follow EV Sales Growth

Since our last post reporting suggestions that the focus of electric vehicles needs to be shifted to the commercial sector, there's been some good news for electric cars. Sales have increased significantly in 2012 with registrations of new vehicles almost doubling in the first 9 months of the year. A total of 1,419 electric cars were registered in the first three quarters under the Government's plug in car grant scheme, up from 786 for the same period in 2011.

Some are crediting the introduction of new models by Toyota, Vauxhall and Renault for the increase and are confident the arrival of other manufacturers into the market during 2013 will see the upward sales trend continue. Ben Lane, managing editor of the website nextgreencar.com??expects the total number of electric cars in the UK to double from around 3,000 to 6,000 in 2013. This may be the first sign of a shift in the public's attitude towards electric vehicles and a softening of the usual concerns about range and cost. But it's a mistake to read too much into the figures particularly when they are set against the wider market ??? electric vehicles made up just 0.1% of the 1.9 million vehicle sales.

Even if the increase in uptake does reflect a new appetite for electric cars the same doesn't yet appear to be true in the commercial market. Although the sector also saw an increase in sales ??? 140 plugin van grant applications in the first nine months is already an improvement on the 99 applications for the whole of 2011 - it's still nothing to write home about. And it's not just in sales that the commercial sector is lagging behind, it's in investment by the major manufacturer too. There is still a limited range of vehicles to select from each with a high price tag.

So despite the positive news we're still in a position where electric vehicles are failing to be the environmental golden bullet that many made them out to be.