Electric vehicles – how quickly is the world changing?

Building on its reputation of offering friendly and knowledgeable advice and service, CEF is committed to helping electricians and electrical contractors plug into the business opportunities offered by the growing market in installing electric vehicle charge points in homes, workspaces and public places all over the UK.

To help understand the extent of the current opportunity and its future growth potential, let’s take a look at the current state of the UK’s electric vehicle market.

According to ZapMap, which tracks the cumulative number of electric vehicles on UK roads, there are now over 530,000 battery-electric cars, plus a further 405,000 plug-in hybrids. That’s almost one million plug-in cars in the UK.

It’s a big change from 2016, which saw just over 30,000 electric vehicles registered, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). Every year since 2010 the annual increases in electric models have gone up.

The switch to electric vehicles has been driven by government policy which will outlaw the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2030, with hybrids being phased out by 2035. Sales of other new vehicles like vans, trucks and buses will continue a little longer, but even new diesel lorries will be banned in the UK by 2040 at the latest.

All this has more and more consumers thinking about making the switch to electric vehicles.

The Eco Experts’ National Home Energy Survey showed that 17% of UK residents plan to buy an EV within the next 12 months, and a further 69% say they’d purchase an EV if money were no object.

By 2030 it’s anticipated that the UK EV market will grow to 10 million vehicles and require 2.3 million charging points in homes, workplaces and public locations[1] .

So yes, electric vehicles are here to stay, and we will see more and more of them on UK roads in the next 10 years.

In 2011, around 55,000 electric vehicles (EVs) were sold globally. Ten years later, that figure had grown close to seven million vehicles.

Countries that have adopted electric vehicles most quickly are concentrated in the northern hemisphere and Europe.

Car-loving USA may have lagged behind other developed countries in adopting electric vehicles, but President Joe Biden has set an ambitious goal for half of new car sales to be electric, fuel cell or hybrid electric vehicles by 2030, so expect to start to see big changes across the pond.

• Norway – 81.0 • Iceland – 36.8 • Sweden – 20.6 • Netherlands – 10.7 • Germany – 8.5 • United Kingdom – 6 • France – 6.5 • United States – 5.2

Norway: Norwegians have adopted electric vehicles rapidly, thanks to their car tax system which makes EV models cheaper to buy compared to a similar petrol model. France: The French government introduced a number of incentives and policies to drive the growth of the electric vehicle market. Germany: Germany announced plans to invest €3.5 billion to develop its EV public charge point infrastructure. United Kingdom: While large investment in infrastructure, particularly public charging has been announced, the UK remains behind other European countries when it comes to the number of public charge points available.

The factor that’s most often cited as holding up electric vehicle ownership here in the UK is range anxiety.

With petrol and diesel cars offering 400-500 miles on one tank, electric vehicles can’t quite match that range, yet. But as most journeys are far shorter, having a decent electric vehicle charging infrastructure in place will go a long way to combat this anxiety.

It’s estimated that around 2.3 million more electric vehicle charging points will need to be installed throughout the UK by the time the sale of new petrol and diesel cars is banned.

Recently the UK government confirmed that all new homes and workplaces built in England from 2022 will need to have EV charging points as standard. The new regulations will apply to residential housing, office blocks and retail sites, and to renovations where there are 10 or more parking spaces.

Electrical wholesaler CEF recognises that EV charging is an opportunity for its customers to grow their own businesses.

It has invested in tools to provide expertise, advice and a complete range of EV charging products and accessories to help electricians and contractors get up to speed with everything they need to know about EV including:

• EV training for all CEF in-store employees • Installation training opportunities for customers bookable in store • EV Trade Days for customers • cef.co.uk/plugintoev accessible advice and information on all things EV charging related • Wide range of charge point brands and accessories available to complete an

EV installation.

[1] https://www.theccc.org.uk/wp-content/ uploads/2020/12/The-UKs-transition-t o-electric-vehicles.pdf