Is the UK still falling behind in the International EV league?

After a slow start compared to some European neighbours, the UK could be on the cusp of being an electric mobility leader. Why is this even more crucial today?

To many the UK is playing catch-up after having fallen behind in their electric vehicle strategy goals compared to other countries in the world — certainly when compared to leaders like China. However, recent developments strongly suggest we’re not way past our goals of seeing electric vehicle investments and adoption sky rocket just yet in the UK.

This is particularly important in a post-Brexit UK, where trade and boosting exports is even more important. The UK reportedly has a £5 billion trade deficit in vehicles today (mainly petrol & diesel fuelled) and driving forward its domestic electric car market share would help increase the UK’s prospects of becoming a net vehicle exporter.

Furthermore, as the UK champions a net zero future by 2050 amongst the world’s leading economies and with transport accounting for over 30% of the UK’s national carbon emissions, the push for making electric cars more affordable and cost-effective will be a driver in seeing the net zero targets through.

But in order to understand why the UK is playing catch-up and some options the government should tick off to cement leadership in the space, let’s look at what other leading EV contenders in Europe have been doing to phase out fossil-fuelled vehicle consumption so far.

Norway:

Norway for over a decade now has remained a leader in the EV revolution with globe leading adoption on a per capita basis. In 2018 Norway had the highest number of electric charging stations and the highest electric passenger car sales share in Europe, and has continued pushing for e-mobility and increased the number of electric registrations. This was on the back of government plans in 2017 officially announcing the ban on fossil-fuelled vehicles by 2025 making them the first set the target. And in 2019, a staggering 40%+ of all vehicles sold in Norway were electrically driven.

The Netherlands:

The Netherlands has long championed e-mobility, with Dutch politicians as early as in 2016 announcing that they plan on banning all new petrol and diesel-powered models by 2025. In 2019, a quarter of all cars sold were powered by electricity and approximately 218,000 electric passenger cars were on the road in 2020. Asides from the electric vehicle industry, the Netherlands had managed to increase the share of electric bicycle sales by 42% in 2019.

Germany:

Germany has been a leading contender in increasing electric mobility since 2003. In 2016, Germany proposed to ban new sales of fossil-fuelled cars with internal combustion engines by 2030. Germany has also recorded to have almost 40,000 publicly available charging stations for electric vehicles in 2019 and over 200,000 plug-in hybrids were purchased in 2020.

What has the UK proposed to do?

The UK last year updated its proposal to bring forward its previous 2040 ban on new petrol and diesel car to 2030.

A move endorsed by The Green Alliance that suggested a “2030 target would reduce the current gap in meeting the UK’s carbon budgets by 60–85%, underpinning the climate leadership that should be core to the UK’s trade strategy.” With 60–85% certainly representing a huge delta, getting this right will be critical in ensuring the UK meets its net zero targets and doesn’t get left behind in the electric vehicle future.

******

ChargeBound is a company dedicated to encouraging UK drivers to go electric. Our mission is to eliminate car passenger emissions in the UK and get us closer to being carbon neutral. To find out more about what we do check out ChargeBound’s website and the solutions we are creating to make a change.

This article was researched and written by our good friend Samrawit Elias.

Photo by Aron Van de Pol on Unsplash