Just before Christmas 2010, the then transport secretary, Philip Hammond, declared that 2011 would be the year of the electric car.

He couldn’t have been more wrong.

However, had he said that 2015 would be the year – history might have judged him as prophetic.

Figures from the UK car industry this week suggest we might finally be waking up to the electric revolution.

In March 2015, we bought more than 6,000 “plug-in” cars, compared with around 1200 in March 2014 – a 400% increase.

Plug-in hybrids – which have a conventional engine as well as an electric motor – saw sales rise by 984% over the same period, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), admittedly from a very low base.

Given the fall in the oil price, which has made conventional motoring cheaper, you might have thought that electric vehicles would be falling out of favour.

In fact, the opposite has happened.

Indeed, if the trend continues, we could well buy more than 30,000 electric vehicles this year alone.

But the good news is also the bad: The government’s £5,000 subsidy on each new car will run out when a total of 50,000 have been sold – and that target could now be reached before the end of the year.

Read more: BBC