EV Sector Sales Dropped by Half in the UK

The U.K. government and industry remain confident that electric cars will see an upswing in demand, despite a dramatic fall in the EV sales sector. According to figures made public by the RAC Foundation last week, the second quarter of the year saw just 215 vehicles bought trough the governments EV grant program, which scrapes GBP5,000(approx.$8.200) from the price of a new elecric car.

This contrasting the last year’s figures with 465 cars sold in the first three months of the year, and reveals a total of 680 EV’s bought trough the program, leaving the UK’s electric fleet still struggling to top 2,500 vehicles.

Estimates may vary, but the Committe on Climate Change reveals that at least 1.7 million electric cars need to be on the UK’s streets by the year 2020, rising at about 6.6 million a decade later, if the country’s climate change regulations are met till than.

“The figures show the mountain we have to climb if the national car fleet of 28 million vehicles is to turn truly green. Even with the grants program, electric cars asre still much more expensive than similar-sized petrol and diesel engines ”Stephen Glaister,Director of the RAC Foundation was quoted as saying by glassguide.com. Furthermore Glaister mentioned that “No one in the industry is worrying as it is still such an early stage. Relative to the number of electric cars registered in previous years, the numbers bought over the last six months represent a step change,” adding the expansion of the infrastructure and the development of new models next year should improve sales figures.