Interesting. I’ve seen this reported elsewhere as well. In addition to all the stated reasons for the fall in demand, I think that there are some other factors at play here.
The demand for EVs in recent years has been driven in the main by the lease market, primarily due to the company car taxation regime which heavily favours them. I think it’s also a safe assumption that the majority of those who have jobs that come with a company car probably have an off road charging solution, so it’s been a much easier decision to switch than it would be for many private buyers.
As has been widely reported (and referred to in this article as a ‘price battle’), EV prices are now starting to fall, lead by Tesla. Others will have to follow to remain competitive. The softening of demand is also affecting second hand EVs, which are taking longer to sell than ICE cars. All of this feeds in to a concern about residual values, which won’t worry lease customers so much (other than the poor chap on this forum who saw the AP of his ID5 drop by £4,400 just after he took delivery), but will be of far greater concern to private customers. EVs have very high retail prices and if you are buying one with your hard earned cash you don’t want to be worrying that the value of that asset may fall sharply when the manufacturer subsequently cuts the selling price! Depreciation is always the biggest cost in private car ownership, and that’s without this being turbo charged by price cuts.
Then, of course, there are all the issues about the public charging infrastructure which isn’t growing at the rate required to meet the anticipated demand. In spite of the demand issues, I was surprised to hear that the number of EVs on the road per public charge point is actually rising in many areas, not falling as you would expect.
Doubtless there will be some calls for subsidies, but I’m dead against those as they only ever benefit the manufacturers by subsidising inflated prices. Look what happened when they were removed or reduced last time – the manufacturers cut their prices! Always best to let sales be governed by the market – good old supply and demand. If the demand isn’t there, prices will have to fall to create it and / or, as is also happening now, supply will have to slow.
I’m sure that this will be a short term issue and things will pick up again once the market settles down, but this is further evidence, if ever it was needed, that the next government will have to move the 2030/35 deadlines – and not just by a year or two!