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So, so, cheap this transition, eh?

The number of households buying electric cars fell sharply last month, new figures show, as industry figures warned over a lack of tax breaks for motorists.

The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) revealed private sales of battery-powered vehicles fell by more than 14pc in September, which the trade body said highlights a need for greater incentives to boost demand.

EVs just are cheaper than ICEs so all will flock to them, right?

23 thoughts on “So, so, cheap this transition, eh?”

  1. Remember Rishi “delayed” Net Zero?

    In three months time, the government starts fining car manufacturers £15,000 for every electric car you don’t buy:

    Modest tweaks will be made to the scheme, but an initial target requiring 22 per cent of each carmaker’s sales in 2024 to be zero emission will remain, as will the goal of 80 per cent in 2030, said people briefed on the arrangements.

    Interim targets, which include a provision that more than half of new car sales are EVs in 2028, may change slightly, they added. 

    But we have to vote Tory, or else Labour might get in.

  2. Bloke in North Dorset

    Indeed Steve. We really are at the stage where it doesn’t matter who you vote for, the government will get in.

  3. If I enter the registration number of my MGA into any of the handy online ULEZ compliancy-testing sites, the result shows that the car is not ULEZ-compliant.

    However, elsewhere I read that “historic vehicles” (and this is one) are exempt.

    If the ULEZ cameras think that my A is non-compliant then I should be able to have fun collecting fines which can subsequently be overturned. Classic car owners have a civic duty to drive past Saddiq’s electronic eyes (but only when the weather is nice, obvs).

  4. @Steve,

    Yeah, Labour might get in…the other cheek of the same arse, as you obviously know already. The only difference is which grifters get to feel important while they fuck the rest of us over “for our own good”.

    I voted Tory since Mrs T. Then I realised that she was an aberration, so now I want the Tory party to be completely destroyed. Burn it down and start again.

  5. I think I’ll keep the cars I’ve got, should see me out if there’s fuel. So boring waiting for the thing to collapse, as it must.

  6. Occurs to me that ‘if there’s fuel’ is carrying a lot of weight in my plan. But maybe there will be more petrol than electricity by then.

  7. In three months time, the government starts fining car manufacturers £15,000 for every electric car you don’t buy:
    When I heard about that doozy, it occurred it’d be a good idea to get out of the electric car business. You can’t be fined for not selling a car you don’t produce.
    I’m increasingly convinced the switch to electric is just not going to happen. Just look at the country I’m living in. The electricity supply to much of towns is loose cables stapled to the front of buildings. Out in the country, you’re lucky to have electricity. The place I had up in the mountains had a 6Amp supply. Not enough to run a cooker on. I suppose we get a disconnection here, for one reason or another, about once a week. One can tell by the bits of electronics have booted themselves up when the power came back up.
    There is simply no way Spain’s electricity supply system could support an electric fleet. I suspect the same’s true in Portugal & many other EU countries. Even the UK couldn’t support one by definitely ’35 & probably ’50.
    So unless countries want to give up on road transport & this one’s currently building new motorway quality roads, there’s no alternatives to ICE’s. I’m firmly convinced the auto- industry’s response to the electrification drive is just a subsidy gathering operation. They must realise there’ll still be demand for ICE powered vehicles for decades.

  8. BiS – none of this makes any sense, it’s no wonder conspiracy theories are so popular these days.

    Evil shape shifting alien reptiles would make more sense than the leaders of the collective West collectively deciding to simultaneously impoverish their own countries and physically disposess their own ethnic groups.

  9. @Steve It makes sense if you perceive the world as I do. People seek to maximise what they perceive as their own personal advantage. And there’s been a great deal of personal advantage gained in pursuit of this particular nonsense. Note personal advantage. For most of the people with influence & gaining that’s over a relatively short duration. Couple of decades at best. But that’s half of most people’s careers, isn’t it? They’re not in the slightest bit interested past that. They’ll be out of the game & the results will be other people’s problems.

  10. Rhoda: my plan is to stick with diesel. Probably not a good plan in a city with ULEZ++ but I live in the country and won’t be moving to a city. Heavy trucks will still be with us and absent a physics-busting improvement in battery energy density they will still need diesel fuel.

    Quite apart from the extremely unlikely augmentation of the grid & generating capacity.

  11. EV sales were boosted by salary sacrifice and company car lease schemes

    Now those cars are seeking private owners. Problem is no-one can tell a prospective buyer what state the battery is in, or guarantee an effective charging infrastructure

    So they are a niche product for rich urban virtue signallers

  12. BiS – sure, but that doesn’t explain the institutional failure. For egg samples, it would be in Pishy Rishi’s political self interest to do popular and conservative things.

    That the Tories would rather piss away a landslide majority than give you anything you want, can’t be easily explained by individual utility maximising.

    Starfish – it’s BIK.

    You get raped with tax if you take a petrol company car, to the point you’re probably better off not taking the company car, because you’re spending hundreds a month on a car you’ll never own.

    Hence fleet sales going electric.

  13. Bloke in Spain:

    “There is simply no way Spain’s electricity supply system could support an electric fleet.”

    There is no electricity supply system in the world that could support a fully electric fleet. None, zip. Most of them are already struggling today.
    There is also no physical way to upgrade all of them within the timespan assumed by politicians. And that is even ignoring the permitting processes and the cost

  14. If I enter the registration number of my MGA into any of the handy online ULEZ compliancy-testing sites, the result shows that the car is not ULEZ-compliant.

    However, elsewhere I read that “historic vehicles” (and this is one) are exempt.

    Sounds very much like another Mayor of Londonistan trying to bring the joys of socialism to this country. We could be more like Cuba! Where everyone drives a nice vintage car! Equality, comrade!

  15. I,be just spent a month in Shanghai. About 30 percent of cars are EVs ( green number plates.) Plenty of Tesla’s, which are built there, plus BYDs, and other makes which are unfamiliar. I think EV owners pay around $20,000 less to register their cars than petrol vehicles.Plenty of electric power, thanks to coal and nuclear energy!

  16. So, new business opportunity.
    Sell ‘certified EV car sale’ vouchers to car manufactuers for say, £1000 each – bargain.
    When someone official comes a-lookin’, vanish.

    It works in Finance, so why not in Autos? See also Carbon Credits and Papal Indulgences.

  17. Steve/BiND,

    See also how Rishi has cancelled HS2 in the North but is going to piss it away on making it slightly quicker for people to get from Bradford to Manchester.

    Almost no-one cares about doing that journey in 30 minutes instead of 52. People who want to commute to Manchester would live closer, plenty of cheap places within 30 minutes. And a lot of those have switched to remote work. People going off for a meeting don’t care about that improvement. And people doing a night out or shopping from Bradford go to Leeds.

    You can vote for a high tax, net zero, pro-choo choo, nannying government, or Labour. I’ll vote Reform at the next election. I think Richard Tice is a total spiv, but this is more about the Tories getting a large metaphorical red hot poker up the arse. And if they don’t reboot with Liz in charge, I’ll give them the same thing again.

  18. Bloke in North Dorset

    Western Bloke,

    It’s over 50 years since I lived in that area but I don’t think much will have changed regarding transport links. I remember the protests and outrage when the M62 was being built, apparently it want needed. Given the current lawfare against infrastructure projects they aren’t building another one or widening the M62 this century even if they start now.

    As for the railways, the tunnels were at capacity then and they’re so small BT had difficulty getting fibre through them. I really don’t see anyone stumping up for new tunnels.

  19. People don’t want second hand electric cars so the price plummets to match demand to supply. As a result 29 of the 30 fastest depreciating cars are electric, so anyone buying a new electric car should know they are going to get burnt.

    BTW – don’t buy a the Alfa Romeo Mito diesel either. At 21st place in the list of fastest depreciators it’s the only non electric car to make the top 30.

  20. @rhoda klapp – “‘if there’s fuel’ is carrying a lot of weight in my plan”

    Get a diesel that will run on vegetable oil. That’s unlikely to be banned.

  21. BiS – sure, but that doesn’t explain the institutional failure.
    Sorry Steve, but there’s no such thing as institutions to fail. What you regard an an “institution” is made up of individuals intent on pursuing their own personal interest. If those individual personal interests align sufficiently, maybe you get the impression of a whole for a while.
    That’s how Gramci’s Long March came about. The Marchers’ personal interests were aligned by their common politics.* The incumbents’ individual personal interests lay in all sorts of directions.

    * Of course they saw the politics as their means of gaining the comfy chair at the university or whatever. And the politics now as a way of keeping it Their personal politics will be mostly the politics of me. Like most people’s.

  22. You could do Bradford to Manchester in 30 minutes on the Calderdale line at the moment…just don’t stop at Halifax, Sowerby Bridge, Mytholmroyd, Hebden Bridge, Todmorden, Walsden, Littleborough, Smithy Bridge and Rochdale…

    Easy peasy!

  23. EU mandated HS2? Scrap the whole damned thing. We don’t need it, GB is too small. “Saved” money: don’t spend on more crap, cut spending and tax

    @Steve

    it’s no wonder conspiracy theories are so popular these days

    Dan Hannan says all the conspiracy theories are Lies

    Despite them all being set out in detail on websites of OECD, NATO, WEF, WHO, UN, Country Excess Deaths & Birth declines…

    – Specific examples: UN Agenda 20 and 30, UK Gov’t FIRE report

    Is he after a ministerial position to supplement his HoL £325 per day “salary” + expenses?

    @Charles

    Get a diesel that will run on vegetable oil. That’s unlikely to be banned

    eg Rover 800 with VM 2.5 engine

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