Last year was the first year since 2018 that battery cars failed to increase their market share. In March 2024, traditionally the busiest month for new car sales, the number of new electric vehicles sold fell slightly (1 percent) compared to the same period in 2023.

Even more worrying for the automotive industry is that only one in 11 private buyers (as opposed to fleets bought for businesses) chose an electric vehicle. Mike Hawes, chairman of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), said: “We’ve fallen behind in terms of market share partly because there are no incentives for private buyers like there are in other countries.”

In the European countries of Belgium, Denmark, Portugal and Finland, annual electric car sales have more than doubled. In Norway, four out of five new cars sold last year were battery-powered electric cars. The Norwegian Electric Car Association claims that cars with combustion engines will soon be a thing of the past in the country.

But even though the Scandinavian country is often referred to as a plug-in paradise, it has one thing in common with Great Britain: dissatisfaction with charging.

Anyone who has ever driven an electric car knows how frustrating it can be when chargers don’t work or are already in use. You know the sinking feeling in your stomach as you wait for the car and charging station to communicate so that power can flow and the journey can continue. And you’d be surprised how expensive public charging stations can be.

James Court, CEO of EV Association England, assured us that things will soon improve. He said: “Once electric vehicle prices are equal and there are more charging points on the roads, one can hope that there will be a real tipping point from combustion engines to electric vehicles.” But when will that be?

To find out whether public attitudes are likely to change in the short term, we examine several widely held beliefs about electric cars to distinguish fact from fiction.

Myth: Electric vehicle prices will not fall anytime soon

Electric vehicles are currently much more expensive to purchase than their combustion engine counterparts.

Buy a new electric Vauxhall Corsa Yes, and it will cost £26,895; the petrol equivalent is £18,505. On finance, the electric vehicle costs £307 a month over four years. The ICE model costs £206 a month over the same period with the same deposit.

But electric car prices will fall. Bloomberg New Energy Finance claims battery costs fell 14 percent last year and there will be price parity between electric and gasoline cars by 2025. This is partly due to higher volumes allowing automakers to save on production, partly due to the increasing number of cheap electric cars from China and partly due to government policy.

The Labour government wants to reverse Rishi Sunak’s decision to postpone the ban on the sale of new cars with combustion engines from 2030 to 2035. However, it is less clear how it intends to implement this. Under the existing rules for 2035, car manufacturers must sell a gradually increasing proportion of electric vehicles. This year it is 22 percent of total sales, and in 2028 it will be 52 percent. A fine of 15,000 pounds per car If they miss the target, it is a compelling incentive.

In his Status of the switch In a report, consultancy New Automotive claimed: “We expect that consumers can expect discounts and rebates – potentially of up to £10,000 – on the sale of some new electric vehicles. This will reduce, and potentially eliminate, the price differential between these manufacturers’ battery-powered electric vehicles and their petrol and diesel equivalents.”

Dylan Setterfield, senior forecast editor at car valuation specialist CAP HPI, added: “We’ve already seen price cuts on some new models.” If you visit a car dealership in the coming months looking for a new battery-powered car, you may be pleasantly surprised at how electric car prices are falling.

Myth: Charging electric vehicles is not that cheap

One of the benefits of electric vehicles is their pleasingly low running costs. Maintenance costs about half as much because electric vehicles have fewer moving parts and brakes don’t wear out as much as combustion engine vehicles. And New Automotive claims that electric vehicles cost around a third (36 percent) less to fuel than a petrol car.

But that all depends on where you charge. Energy supplier EdF offers a night-time home charging tariff of 9p per kWh. With an averagely efficient electric vehicle, a 20-mile journey costs 51p. On a motorway, however, with a peak tariff of 79p per kWh, that 20-mile journey costs £4.51 in energy.

Many public charging stations cost just around 40p/kWh (£2.28 for 20 miles), so that’s cheaper than the same journey in a 40mpg petrol car, which will cost £3.29 petrol at July 2024 prices.

However, public charging stations will be more expensive because they will be subject to a 20 percent VAT, while for private charging stations it is only 5 percent. Vicky Read, CEO of ChargeUK, which represents 40 charging station operators and installers, said: “This definitely does not help affordability and discriminates against people who cannot charge at home.”

Although public charging is not always cheap – and many in the electric vehicle industry say it should be cheaper – the energy costs of electric vehicles are actually lower than those of internal combustion engine vehicles.