James Hind, CEO of carwow, Europe’s largest online marketplace for buying and selling cars, says proposals that half of all new cars sold in the UK may have to be fully electric by 2028 should be seen as a very positive step in the acceleration of electric vehicle adoption, but urges the Government to do more to encourage motorists to make the switch to EV.

James comments: “We know that the shift to fully electric is inevitable, and welcome tough targets that will significantly help increase the adoption as soon as possible. We believe that the vast majority of new car buyers should be buying electric cars today, and we are already seeing signs of a shift in consideration – when petrol prices hit record highs in March, searches for EVs on our site rose 37% in a week, and year-on-year are up 150%.

“The positives of electric far outweigh the few negatives; the fears that consumers have about electric are now often outdated or weren’t correct to start with. We know that many consumers are concerned that today’s electric cars, or their batteries, may depreciate rapidly. However, with leasing this isn’t the consumer’s concern or problem. Over 80% of new car buyers finance or lease their car, and carwow saw a 200% increase in electric vehicle lease enquiries in 2021. EVs now make up 38% of all carwow enquiries, up from just 11% in 2018.

“Range anxiety is another common challenge, however both the average range of electric cars and the charging infrastructure has come on leaps and bounds over the last few years.

“From consumer interviews, we still believe that there is more the car industry can do to train consumer facing dealership staff to help educate and inform prospective new car buyers about the advantages and realities of electric vehicle usage. The sales mandates that have been talked about are one way this could be encouraged, but we would also call upon the government to learn from the hugely positive impact that German government funded EV subsidies have had on accelerating electric new car sales in Germany over the last couple of years. The RRP of electric cars versus similar internal combustion engine cars is significantly higher, so if the government is serious on making this shift happen then they need to help lower the cost through incentives or subsidies.”