While the electric car made rapid progress on the Danish market during the month of September, it looked different in England, where private drivers would rather drive diesel.
In the month of September, car buyers experienced a greater demand for diesel cars than electric cars. This has caused several industry professionals to repeat their calls for increased political support for the electric car.
Otherwise, there are e.g. among car brands a fear that the market is developing too slowly in relation to the country's strict environmental requirements. Environmental requirements, which must already be met in 2025.
Specifically, 22 percent of all new cars – at least in England – must be pure electric cars before the end of the year.
Even so, the sale of diesel cars to private individuals has increased by 17.1 percent compared to September last year, which corresponds to an increase of 1,367 cars.
The figure stands in stark contrast to an overall drop in diesel sales of 7 percent over the past year. Electric cars also experienced a minor increase in demand among private individuals, with a growth of 3.6%, which corresponds to 410 more registrations in the same period.
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However, the upswing in the registration of electric cars for private customers must be explained by the car brands' and dealers' high discounts on the cars.
According to Autocar, the discounts are "unusually high," because the car brands are chasing the 22 percent sales required by law.
However, the majority of sales of electric cars in England are not driven by private drivers at all, but by companies that can obtain large tax benefits by making their fleets of cars fully electric.
No less than 76 percent of the 56,387 electric cars that were sold in September in England are registered as company cars.
According to Mike Hawes, director of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), this figure is worrying as it suggests that electric car sales are not growing fast enough to meet government regulatory requirements.
– The record result for electric cars in September is positive. But if you look more closely at the numbers, it gives rise to serious concerns.
– The market is not developing fast enough to meet the statutory targets, says Hawes.
The statutory targets refer to the British government's emissions regulations, which mean large fines for car manufacturers who fail to allocate at least 22 per cent of the year's profit to the sale of electric cars.
Generally speaking, the UK car market saw an improvement in September after a quiet August. However, the progress is negligible.
According to the SMMT, 275,239 new cars were sold in September, which was a 1 percent increase on 2023. While that's an improvement, it's still 20 percent lower than the car sales before COVID-19 hit England in 2019.
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