02 August 2010

Even with the government’s new grant of up to £5,000, the price of electric cars will still make some of us wince.

Come January, when the grants become available, dealers will still find customers treading carefully lest they damage any of the green shoots appearing after the recession. Consumers will also be walking into an area when everything subject to VAT will also be that much more expensive.

For many motorists, finding £24,000 (the likely cost of, say, a Nissan Leaf having taken advantage of the discount and incorporating the new VAT rate) will be a step too far especially as they will also be driving into the unknown with electric vehicles.

I suspect that by March, when the Leaf goes on sale, Nissan dealers will find most of their customers happy to become late adopters, even with all its bells and whistles. But it was ever thus with anything as revolutionary as a mass-produced electric car. Even the hybrid electric cars have not exactly become a core segment of the automotive market and they have been around since 1900. Yes, 1900!

Ferdinand Porsche developed a petrol-electric hybrid at the turn of the century. Then, 97-years passed until the Toyota Prius arrived, followed by the Honda Insight in 1999.

Nevertheless, up to £5,000 is a generous grant which will be welcomed by the low carbon car makers and their dealers, especially as there was some doubt whether the coalition government would go ahead with the subsidy at all. The next step will be to start training the service and sales staff at the Nissan dealerships who will be offering the Leaf.

But don’t lets get ahead of ourselves as I suspect workshops will still be busy servicing internal combustion engines for some time yet. Even though the UK is quietly becoming something of an EV pioneer, volumes are bound to remain small initially.

Projections from engineering R&D company Ricardo show that most cuts in C02 emissions in the next two decades will come from internal combustion developments, efficient automated transmissions and weight savings.

The other good news is that Hertz made a positive commitment to EVs, last week, by signing-up for 500 Leafs to be offered as rental cars in Europe and America.

Have a good week, both in and out of the showroom. If you have a story for us, email: barry@auto-retail.com

Barry Hook
 

Tags: Electric Vehicles, EVs