Last year the number of cars sold in the UK dropped by 2%. Never the less, electric car sales continue to grow, now accounting for 17% of new cars in the UK (a little more than 1 in 6). Now quite rightly, some would argue “why are we celebrating 1 in 6 cars being electric, particularly as that only accounts for around 2% of cars currently on the UK roads. I would argue that this is something to celebrate for 2 reasons. For the first, look at the graph below:
The growth here is an exponential, as such unless it changes its direction significantly, this will continue at a high speed, and it is reasonable to suppose that in 5 years the numbers could be exponentially bigger.
The second reason is simple: generally once someone gets an electric car, they do not go back. Until recently electric cars were things that rich people bought as their second car, but what is becoming clear is that this is no longer the preserve of the rich. It is true that electric cars are more expensive than others, but when you take into account the cost savings both in terms of fuel and upkeep, the electric one comes out on top. This is gradually becoming clear to everyone. We purchased our first electric car not that long ago. While the price was 6 times what we had spent on a car before (and that was still a bargain) We are paying off the debt and keeping the car fuelled for less than we would have been paying for petrol – and it is a far fancier car than our last one.
Wherever you live, you should be looking at electric cars, it is one of the easiest ways to both cut your bills and reduce your carbon footprint – we need the change to happen as fast as possible.