Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) Poll: public confused on petrol car phase-out

When asked how many years they thought they had left buy a new car that you can fill up with petrol or diesel, 45% thought it would happen within the next seven years, by 2030. In fact, it will not be until 2035 that the Government plans to phase out the sale of new cars you can fill with fuel at a petrol station. These hybrid vehicles are not dependent on electric chargers to drive.

The polling also found that two-thirds (68%) of Britons underestimate the number of drivers who have access to off-street parking . The actual proportion of homes with access to off-street parking is around 70% [2]. This allows for the installation of private chargers, which give access to cheap EV-charging tariffs that can allow an electric Nissan Leaf to be driven for less than 2p/mile (compared to over 13p/mile for an equivalent petrol Nissan Juke).

Commenting, Colin Walker, Head of Transport at ECIU, said:

“The British public are being confused. Firstly by hype suggesting the phase-out date for new petrol and diesel cars is much sooner than it really is. You’ll still be able to buy a new car you can fuel with petrol until 2035, giving us more than a decade to build up the charging infrastructure for those making the switch in the next 12 years. Many would suggest we’re talking the country down if we don’t think the UK can do that particularly with the charging industry committing an extra £6bn in investment.

“Secondly, by suggesting EVs are more expensive to own and operate than their petrol equivalents. In fact, EVs are often much cheaper to fuel and own. Charging at home, available to the majority of UK households, makes an EV many times cheaper to fuel. Only a complete reliance on expensive, rapid chargers – a highly unrealistic scenario – would render an EV more expensive to fuel than a petrol vehicle.

“Despite this, industry sales figures show British drivers are continuing to drive up EV sales. The risk of trying to slow the transition down is that the cheaper costs of driving an EV will remain out of reach to more people for longer – particularly for those reliant on the second-hand market. A new EV today is a cheap-to-run second-hand EV in three years’ time.”

Almost half (44%) of respondents also thought that owning an EV is more expensive than a petrol car, when the reality is that many EVs are cheaper to own and operate. The ECIU found that a four year old second-hand Nissan Leaf would, over the remaining 10 years of its life, save its over £8,000 in total ownership costs compared to a Nissan Juke petrol equivalent.

More than half of Britons (52%) know a friend or family member with an EV – and of those 74% said that person had a positive experience of it.

Latest industry sales figures show growing demand for EVs, with almost one in five new cars sold in June a battery electric vehicle, up 40% year on year [3].

Quentin Willson, Founder of FairCharge said:

“This research from the ECIU echoes the work we’ve carried out at FairCharge, and also my own experiences of driving tens of thousands of miles in electric vehicles (EV) over the last decade. The current misinformation from pockets of the mainstream media is wildly distorting the real facts about EV ownership. Consumers have another 12 years to buy new hybrids than can be fuelled at petrol stations and don’t rely on chargers to function. Nearly three quarters of the population have access to driveways to install chargers so they can charge their EVs on low night time tariffs which are often as much as ten times less expensive than public chargers. Over 80% of existing EV drivers charge at home while they sleep. At the same time the public charging infrastructure is growing at considerable speed, just look at companies such as Gridserve, Osprey and Instavolt as leaders in the field bedding in best practice.

“The total cost of ownership of EVs is lower than combustion cars, with maintenance costs circa 40% less. FairCharge’s research also shows that over 80% of EV owners would never go back to driving a combustion car. With 1.2 million plug-in cars already on UK roads there’s clearly a sizeable body of drivers who don’t agree with the anti-EV rhetoric we read in some newspapers. Instead, they have successfully, and happily, folded electric cars into their daily lives. Some now even balancing the grid with V2G technology. True energy independence and security, it’s their voices we must listen to.”

Previous ECIU analysis has found that by slowing down the sale of new EVs, the second-hand EV market will suffer leading to second-hand drivers missing out on £9bn of savings that come from driving electric [4].

The UK car industry has said the switch to EV manufacture could be worth £106 billion [5]. Currently 80% of UK-made cars are exported – of these 71% (i.e. 56% of total UK car manufacturing) go to three large markets – the EU, China and 16 US states – that are introducing electric vehicle targets that will heavily restrict the sale of petrol and diesel vehicles. If the UK fails to respond to these changes in demand and develop its electric vehicle manufacturing base, analysis by the ECIU suggests that the UK could lose £13.3bn of car exports in 2030 alone – a collapse in export revenue of nearly 60pc, putting hundreds of thousands of British jobs at risk [6].

The Government’s phase out dates will allow new hybrids will be on sale until 2035. However the Climate Change Committee’s recent Progress Report to Parliament quotes findings from the International Council on Clean Transportation that the carbon savings from plug-in hybrid (PHEV) cars are around three to five times lower in the real world than previously assumed [7].