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Demand for new electric vehicles is at its lowest level in three years with rising electricity prices and negative sentiment.
That’s the view of Auto Trader who says that in the summer of last year, EVs accounted for nearly 30% of all new car orders shipped to retailers.
It said in November, when electricity prices started to rise, it was down one in five, and today it is less than one in 10.
Auto Trader Commercial Director Ian Plummer said the record EV sales performance in December was skewed.
“The decline in electric car sales reveals that December’s record performance – when one in three new cars sold in the UK was electric – was artificially inflated due to Tesla’s large quarterly vehicle shipments and the impact of the manufacturer’s annual emissions target rather than reflecting true consumer tastes. at that level.”
Plummer said that automakers will be forced to introduce price cuts or incentives to boost EV sales.
“In the absence of government support, manufacturers will likely be forced to increase prices to stimulate consumer demand, which is what we are already starting to see with Tesla announcing significant price reductions on key models.
“And it worked. Following the Tesla news, we saw an immediate jump of 113% in Model 3 page views in our marketplace.
“As the race to EV dominance accelerates, I believe we will see other brands follow suit, though perhaps with customer offerings rather than price cut lists.”
“While the industry will not welcome price and profitability challenges, if EVs are to achieve mass-market success they will need to bridge the current price gap of around 35% between similar EVs and petrol or diesel equivalents. And hopefully by building that scale, the resulting economy can sustain the industry’s journey on the “Road to 2030”.
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