Electric car shortfall ‘to cost drivers £9bn’

MOTORISTS face missing out on £9billion in savings over the next 20 years if the Government fails to boost the uptake of electric cars.

A report found that used small to mid-sized electric vehicles(EVs) can save owners between £500 and £800 a year in running costs compared with petrol equivalents.

But the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit warned that a lack of available second-hand EVs could cost drivers £9billion in missed savings by 2043.

It estimated that if the Government sticks to its proposed level for the incoming ‘zero-emission vehicle mandate’, there will be 2.1million fewer used small and mid-sized EVs on sale by 2033 – compared with a scenario in which ministers adopt the car industry’s ‘high’ sales projections.

The mandate will force manufacturers to boost the proportion of new cars and vans they sell in the UK that are zero emission. The Government wants that level set at 22 per cent for 2024, rising each year – including to 38 per cent in 2027 – until 2035 when 100 per cent of sales must be zero emission.

But ECIU analysis of an forecast produced by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders suggested that if the take-up of EVs were ‘high’, their market share would hit 34 per cent in 2024, and as high as 60 per cent in 2027.

Colin Walker, from the ECIU, said: ‘If Government policy on new EVs goes slow, the growth of the second-hand EV market will be held back, potentially consigning families to more expensive motoring.’

The Department for Transport said that it was ‘working closely’ with the car industry ‘on the path to all new cars being zero emission by 2035’.