Five-year-old vehicles are now great value and prices are rising as buyers cotton on

If the two people behind a major website championing electric cars have both done it, the rest of us should probably take note.

Whisper, so not too many people hear it, but used five-year-old electric cars are arguably one of the best vehicle purchases you can make right now, whatever your environmental credentials. It makes particular sense if you are one of the millions of people who use their car most days.

Long considered way out of the price range of normal car buyers, good quality electric cars that were launched a few years ago, are now hitting the used market for less than £7,000.

Nissan Leafs, which cost £30,000 (after grants) eight years ago, can be found for £5,700 with about 60,000 miles on the clock.

A Renault Zoe, with a leased battery and with fewer miles on the clock, starts at about £6,500.

Even the more futuristic-looking and previously expensive BMW i3s, made from recyclable parts, can be had for £13,000 for a five-year-old, low-mileage model. Once purchased, these environmentally friendly cars cost a few pounds a week to run – attractive at a time when petrol costs £1.30 a litre and diesel averages £1.36.

Interestingly, used electric vehicle prices have, in recent months, started rising – a near unheard-of thing in the used car market – as demand outstrips supply. They are also increasingly being sold by a new group of car dealers that have emerged only selling electric vehicles.

Read more: The Guardian

Sales of petrol and diesel vehicles could be phased-out by 2035 in new plans revealed by transport secretary Grant Shapps.

The intent to examine the phase-out date was announced yesterday (30 September) by Shapps at the Conservative party conference in Manchester.

“If we’re to become the world-leader in green technology, we must always be looking to expand our ambitions.

“I’d therefore like to see government look again at the 2040 target, and thoroughly explore the case for bringing this date forward,” Shapps said.

The transport secretary continued to say the government “should aim” for a new date of 2035 and will need to “test the arguments” and work with the industry to work out how to proceed.

This is a date pushed for by the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) in its net zero report, which recommended a ban of 2035 or earlier.

But Jillian Anable, co-director of the UK Energy Research Centre, University of Leeds, said the phase-out must be brought forward to at least 2032 if the transport sector is to contribute to emissions reductions.

Anable went on to say, however, that even a 2032 ban would be “nowhere near enough”.

“This phase out must include plug-in hybrid vehicles as their on-road emissions depend on how many miles are driven on the battery as opposed to the fuel tank.”

Read more: Current News

The party says if it gets elected, it’ll offer loans to low income households

Labour says that it will offer 2.5 million interest-free loans to buyers of electric vehicles to accelerate the uptake of zero-emission vehicles if it is elected.

Shadow chancellor John McDonnell confirmed that the loans would be up to a value of £33,000 and be available to low income households, independent contractors and small businesses.

It says the government would cover £1,500 cost of interest and claims recipients would save up to £5,000 over the course of the loan.

However, acceptance into the scheme would require participants to take part on a mass trial of vehicle-to-grid technology, which sees electric cars used as energy storage devices that can be tapped into to take stress off the national grid.

McDonnell said:

“This will stimulate the automotive industry, it will sustain jobs in the conversion from fossil fuels to electric but actually it will create new jobs as well.”

Read more: Express and Star

EVs are finally making their presence felt in the True Fleet registrations.

By the end of 2019, electric cars will probably hit six figures in the EU18 market. On some markets, the TCO is on a par with ICE cars – all depends on discounts, subsidies and residual values.

Electric is finally appearing to make it presence felt in the True Fleet new car market during the first six months of 2019, already up by almost 27,000 registrations from 1st HY 2018. The momentum is finally building and at the present rate will probably see the fuel type hit six figures by the end of 2019. Hybrid has also increased but by a more sedate 1.7%. Already in the six-figure club, it could finish with close to quarter of a million registrations, Dataforce finds.

The Tesla Model 3 is the rising star – many corporates have been waiting to take delivery of the all-electric alternative to the German premium C and D segment saloons. Interestingly, Renault has been shifting a lot of Zoes in the first half-year of 2019 and the BMW i3 has climbed to number three, ahead of the Nissan Leaf and the VW Golf.

Read more: Fleet Europe

‘I make no bones about it. We want to remove all the subsidy’

THINKING of upgrading to a new pure-electric car? You may want to consider putting your order in sooner rather than later, as the Department for Transport (DfT) plans to fully phase out the Plug-in Car Grant subsidy.

In an interview with The Times, the transport secretary Grant Shapps confirmed the government wants to pull the plug on the grant, which allows buyers of eligible vehicles to save up to £3,500 on their new car purchase — though didn’t indicate when exactly the incentive will be scrapped.

Shapps said: “I make no bones about it. We want to remove all the subsidy. So you can see this in two ways. If you are out there reading this, thinking of buying an electric car, buy it while the subsidy’s there, because it will go eventually.”

While the transport secretary has personally benefitted from the scheme, having purchased a pure-electric Tesla Model 3 saloon, and believes the scheme is “helping people switch to the emissions-free cars of the future”, he said he can’t promise “lots of extra public bungs of taxpayers’ cash so you can buy your new car” in future.

Phasing out the subsidy for pure-electric cars appears to be at odds with the government’s plans to reduce UK emissions and its Road to Zero strategy, which will require all new cars to produce “effectively zero” emissions by 2040.

The transport secretary says he instead wants policy makers play their part in assisting drivers make the switch to zero emission vehicles, helping to “normalise electric cars as being the way forward”.

Read more: Driving

Research shows ‘electric cars’ will simply be called ‘cars’ by the end of the next decade.

More than two-thirds of British adults expect electric cars to become so ‘normal’ that they will simply be called ‘cars’ by 2030, new research has found.

A study of 2,000 UK adults found that 69 percent said they expected people to drop the word ‘electric’ from ‘electric cars’ over the next decade. The research, which was conducted by the Go Ultra Low campaign – a joint venture between the government and the automotive industry designed to increase the uptake of low-emission vehicles – revealed that drivers think increasing familiarity with the technology will help normalise the zero-emission cars.

Of the survey’s respondents, a third (33 percent) said they thought seeing family and friends drive electric vehicles (EVs) would help normalise the cars. Almost half (49 percent), however, said seeing more electric cars on the road would be among the biggest factors in changing consumer perceptions.

However, the research also suggested there may be some work to do before consumers make the switch to ultra-low-emission transport. Almost half of respondents (45 percent) said they thought improved charging infrastructure would be key to increasing uptake of EVs, while a quarter (25 percent) said they thought a wider variety of available models would make them more likely to go electric.

But Go Ultra Low suggested these issues may be down to misconceptions, rather than valid concerns. The study found the average Brit believes there are 15 EVs on the market, but Go Ultra Low says there are actually 24 fully electric or hydrogen-powered cars on sale, plus a further 27 plug-in hybrid cars. And the organisation pointed out that the UK’s charging network is “constantly growing”, with more than 25,000 charge connectors currently provided at around 9,500 locations. Recent figures showed the number of British EV charge points has now outstripped the number of petrol stations in the UK.

Read more: Yahoo News