Monthly Archives: May 2023

EV sales experience 60% YOY growth

May 17, 2023Buying a new car, Electric Cars, News, Reviews and CommentRepost

New AutoMotive’s latest data revealed that electric vehicle (EV) sales in the UK rose by 60% year-on-year in April.

EVs were also the only market segment to experience a growth in sales and market share, which increased by 5% to make up 16% of the market.

The region with the highest number of new cars registered was Oxfordshire with 49% of newly registered cars being electric, which means that now one in every two cars in the county is electric.

Other reginal highlights include Wimbledon with 33% of new car registrations being electric and Birmingham at 23%.

Fuel Type	Registered vehicles April 2023 (provisional)	Market share April 2023 (%)	Registered vehicles April 2022	Market share April 2022 (%)
Petrol	61,462	50.42	59,722	58.8
Hybrid	31,326	25.7	28,224	25.43
Pure electric	19,234	15.78	12,014	10.82
Diesel	9,779	8.02	10,854	9.78
Other	99	0.08	188	0.17

Data: New Automotive.

Electric vans also experienced an increase in new registration, now holding 7% of the market – a year-on-year growth of 55%.

“It is fantastic to see such strong growth in sales of electric cars since a year ago. Electric cars accounted for almost 16% of all new registrations in April 2023, which represents a staggering 60% rise in the number of EV sold,” said Ben Nelmes, CEO at New AutoMotive.

“The shift towards electric vehicles is not just about reducing climate risk; it’s about benefiting motorists. British drivers increasingly understand making the switch to an electric vehicle is beneficial for them – they are cheaper to run, require less maintenance, and improve local air quality.”

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ChargeUK established to double the size of UK EV charging network in 2023

May 16, 2023Away From Home, Charging, Charging, Electric Cars, News, Reviews and CommentRepost

ChargeUK, a new trade association which launched today (28 April), is aiming to invest £6 billion by 2030 in EV charging and double the size of the UK EV charging network in 2023.

The association, which brings together 18 EV charging companies, will look to increase the availability of charging in addition to accelerating investment and delivery. This will be achieved via collaboration with government and other stakeholders to break down barriers and shape policies and regulation.

Founding members of the organisation include: Be.EV, Believe, bp pulse, char.gy, ChargePoint, Connected Kerb, ESB, evyve, Fastned, Genie Point, Gridserve, Ionity, Mer, Osprey, Pod Point, PoGo Charge, RAW Charging and Shell Recharge.

“The formation of ChargeUK is an exciting day and is a demonstration of the EV charging industry’s growing size and importance to the UK economy,” said Ian Johnston, chair of ChargeUK and CEO of Osprey Charging Network.

“Together we are investing billions of pounds to get more charge points in the ground right across the country. These numbers reinforce our commitment to the UK’s net zero future. We will continue to be a proactive partner to government as we deliver a world-class charging infrastructure, giving the nation’s drivers confidence to transition to EVs.”

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Carmakers are pushing electric SUVs, but smaller is better when it comes to EVs

May 15, 2023Buying a new car, Electric Cars, News, Reviews and CommentRepost

Electric SUVs are better than their gas counterparts for the climate, but they can be worse than compact gas burners

The electrification of the US’s vast fleet of cars and trucks is a cornerstone of Joe Biden’s plan to tackle the climate crisis. But the ballooning size of electric vehicles, crowding out smaller, more affordable models that strip fewer resources from the environment, threatens to undercut this goal.

Last week, General Motors announced that it will axe its Chevy Bolt electric vehicle by the end of the year. The compact Bolt, launched in 2016 as a way to challenge Tesla for mainstream EV buyers, is one of the cheapest electric cars on the market, costing less than $30,000 and eligible for the $7,500 tax credit offered to drivers for EVs in last year’s mammoth Inflation Reduction Act, unlike the similar Nissan Leaf, which doesn’t qualify due to its foreign manufacture.

Renault EZ-PRO: Urban delivery goes robo (Image: J. Oppenheim/Renault)

In a sign of how the US’s fixation upon large SUVs and pickup trucks is now infiltrating the nascent EV market, General Motors, which aims to sell 1m EVs in the US by 2025, said that the Michigan plant currently churning out Bolts will switch to new electric models of the Silverado and the GMC Sierra – hulking, and more expensive, alternatives that will probably provide the auto company a greater financial return than the modest Bolt.

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What is the best family electric car?

May 12, 2023Audi, Electric Cars, News, Reviews and CommentRepost

In need of a suitable electric family car but unsure of where to start looking? We’ve got you covered with this list showing 10 of the best

Switching to an electric car can be a huge change for a family – not just because it’s a new way of driving, but because it introduces some big differences.

However, once you’ve got the hang of how and when to charge them, and what the range is, you’ll be on your way to a cleaner and more efficient future.

Here are 10 of the best electric family cars that we think you should consider for your next used car purchase.

Audi e-tron

For its first mass-produced electric car, Audi didn’t want to mess about, which is why it launched the e-tron – a fully electric family car with a range of up to 250 miles on a single charge.

With its spacious rear legroom and high-tech interior, what more could you want? It’s also got a 605-litre boot that’s one of the largest in its class, allowing you to stuff it full of bags for a long weekend road trip away with the kids.

In addition to its impressive infotainment system with an 11.6-inch touchscreen, the e-tron also comes with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto to ensure you’re covered no matter what phone you use.

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Britain gets back in the driving seat with more than a million electric vehicles on the road

May 11, 2023Electric Cars, News, Reviews and CommentRepost

One in 32 cars driving in Britain now comes with a plug, amounting to 1,089,241 vehicles – a rise of more than half over the last year

MORE BRITONS are getting back into the driving seat following the pandemic, according to new annual Motorparc data from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), with the number of cars in use on UK roads in 2022 rising by 124,393 units to a total of 35,148,045.

This has returned the number of cars on the road to levels last seen in 2019, while the overall number of vehicles has risen to a record 40,723,974 units as supply shortages begin to ease and scrappage levels decline.

Businesses are also getting into gear to help deliver the UK’s post-pandemic recovery, with 615,570 trucks and 4,887,593 vans in service, up 1.9% and 1.7% respectively. Britain’s HGV parc is now at record levels, while vans make up almost one in eight vehicles in use, the largest proportion ever recorded.

The UK’s bus and coach fleet, however, has fallen again, by -2.3% to 72,766 vehicles – the lowest since records began, with 16,608 going out of service over the last decade. More than one in four buses have been in use for more than 15 years, demonstrating the need for support to encourage operators to invest in the latest zero-emission buses given the essential role these vehicles play in providing mobility for millions of people and in road transport decarbonisation.

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Review: Hyundai Ioniq 6

May 10, 2023Electric Cars, Hyundai, News, Reviews and CommentRepost

The South Korean company’s new electric ride is a triumph in design and drive tech—and it’s just the beginning of an unbelievable brand turnaround.

AT THE START of 2023, the good people at the Department of Experimental Psychology at University College London surveyed 200 men between the ages of 18 and 74, and supposedly discovered scientifically what we all knew already: Men driving fast cars likely have small dicks.

Put more precisely, the authors stated that there was “a casual psychological link between fast cars and small penises.” The thinking, according to their paper, is that men who believe they are somehow lacking in the trouser department are more likely to rush out and buy, say, a Porsche 911 or a Ferrari.

It gets worse for older gentlemen. The experiment, which has not yet undergone peer review, found that “males over 30 in particular rated sports cars as more desirable when they were made to feel that they had a small penis.”

One suspects the academics could hear the cries of “Quelle suprise!” even before they finished their study.

Car design is, sadly, still almost exclusively a male space. But now, thankfully, the nature of EVs and the need for range-extending slippy aerodynamics has at least started to shift new car forms away from todger-compensating tropes such as power bulges, aggressive haunches, and ridiculous spoilers, instead bringing in subtler, aero-friendly lines.

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Here’s 10 electric coupe crossovers on sale now or in the near future

May 9, 2023Audi, Electric Cars, News, Reviews and Comment, SkodaRepost

They might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but they just keep on coming

Audi Q4 Sportback e-tron

Audi’s first ground-up electric SUV, the Q4 e-tron, spawned a coupeified variant back in 2020, as the trend for sportier coupe crossovers started to gather momentum. No, we’re not sure why either.

At time of writing, it’s available in two flavours. The two-wheel-drive 40 Sportback e-tron gets a 77kWh (usable) battery mated to a rear 201bhp motor and electric range of up to 328 miles, while the 50 e-tron Sportback quattro gets the same battery but with an extra front motor for four-wheel drive, boosting power to 295bhp but reducing the official range to 318 miles.

As ever with coupeified crossovers, it sacrifices a little headroom and bootspace in favour of style compared to its full-size SUV sibling, while you can expect to pay around £1.5k extra.

Skoda Enyaq iV Coupe

Skoda’s five-seat electric SUV has won plenty of plaudits for its affordability, practicality, and family friendliness (not least from us), so it was only natural that a coupeified variant would follow.

The Enyaq Coupe iV 80 gets a 201bhp electric motor powering the front wheels and 77kWh battery for an all-electric range of up to 345 miles, while the 80x model gets a dual motor 261bhp set-up for four-wheel drive and the same-sized battery for up to 322 miles of electric range.

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Best electric car discounts: how to save money on a new EV

May 5, 2023Buying/Leasing, Congestion Charge, Cost of ownership, Electric Cars, News, Reviews and CommentRepost

It’s currently possible to save up to £4188 on a new electric car. And you don’t even have to haggle, thanks to our free New Car Buying service…

Electric cars have been hugely popular and demand has traditionally been so strong that discounts on them were virtually impossible to find. That has started to change, though, with the average saving on an electric vehicle (EV) now standing at 3.1% or £1805 per car. That’s up more than 25% year on year.

The catalyst for the discounting was Tesla’s big price reduction of its models in January 2023. A number of other factors have also had an influence on prices, including the slowing of new car sales due to the cost-of-living crisis, a drop in resale values of EVs, and the impending Government directive that 22% of all cars sold by manufacturers must be all-electric from next year.

Even though electric car sales are growing more rapidly than those of other fuel types – with registrations up 18.8% compared with 18.4% for petrol models – the discounts available on them are also increasing, according to data compiled by What Car?’s Target Price team.

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Autocar Awards 2023: the Hyundai Ioniq 6 is our Best Company Car

May 4, 2023Electric Cars, Hyundai, IONIQ Electric, News, Reviews and Comment, OpinionRepost

Ioniq 6 is an impressive EV with good efficiency, a long range, generous rear seat space – plus, those BIK rates…

It ought to be unsurprising that Hyundai’s second flagship EV, the Ioniq 6, surprises with its looks.

Thanks in part to the firm’s design director SangYup Lee, who received last year’s Design Hero award, Hyundai has in recent years become one of the most innovative car companies when it comes to styling. It has built up a mainstream range of good-looking cars, but its EVs are where it really stretches out.

The Ioniq 6’s streamliner looks won’t please everyone, but no one could ever accuse it of being bland.

Hyundai Ioniq Electric Handover (Image: T. Larkum)

First came the Hyundai Ioniq 5, which questioned whether an SUV actually needs to look like an SUV, and introduced a new brand of retro-futurism that has clearly struck a chord with buyers.

But while most of Hyundai’s range (and most other manufacturers’ model ranges) becomes ever more SUV-heavy, the Korean manufacturer has decided to embrace the traditional saloon and has done so with un-traditional means.

In some ways the Ioniq 6 is quite old-fashioned, being a four-door saloon with a boot lid that is laser-focused on streamlining and aerodynamics. At the same time, it is a cutting-edge EV offering 800V architecture, ultra-fast charging, a large battery, good mechanical efficiency and a class-leading range as a result.

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The Guardian view on the electric car revolution: targets are not enough

May 3, 2023Buying/Leasing, Electric Cars, News, Reviews and Comment, Opinion, PollutionRepost

The government must do its bit to make new electric vehicles more affordable if mass adoption is to be achieved on the road to net zero

When the government controversially scrapped its discount on the purchase of electric cars last summer, the move was justified on the grounds that its work was done. After 11 years of subsidies, said ministers, the electric vehicle revolution had been “kickstarted”. As Britain strives to meet a 2030 target to end the sale of new petrol and diesel vehicles, that judgment is beginning to look a little complacent.

Amid ongoing economic headwinds, data has emerged that suggests a drop-off in current demand for electric cars, despite notable public enthusiasm for their adoption in principle. Auto Trader, which hosts the country’s largest car sales website, reported this month that inquiries in relation to new electric vehicles had fallen significantly compared with last year.

A number of factors are likely to be involved. As interest rates and inflation remain high, the upfront cost of a new electric car makes it more expensive in the short term than a petrol or diesel one. Falling oil prices may have diminished the immediate incentive to switch. At the same time, despite repeated pledges by Whitehall, the rollout of charging infrastructure continues to be too slow and is not keeping pace with sales.

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