The UK reportedly surpassed France to become the second biggest electric car market of Europe in Q1 of the year, amid the surging demand for cars with no exhaust emissions.
Roughly 31,800 battery-based electric cars were sold all across the UK in the first three months, as compared to 30,500 in France, as per an analysis done by an independent automotive analyst, Matthias Schmidt.
The sales of electric car have climbed rapidly since the early 2020, in part since novel emissions regulations mean manufacturers face high fines if the average carbon dioxide output of their products does not fall.
Battery electrics held over 7.5 per cent of UK sales in the first three months of the year, as per the industry data, almost twice the market share as compared to the same period last year.
In spite of the COVID-19 pandemic, last year was the very first year in which consumers of Europe purchased roughly half a million electric cars. As per Schmidt’s forecasts, this is likely to double to 1m sales this year, though pure electrics would only account for a tenth of the overall European car market by 2024.
Germany is by far the largest single market known for battery electric cars across Europe, with around 64,700 sold in Q1. Additionally, other markets are proportionally much more advanced than the UK in shifting to electric cars. In 2020, Norway, was in fact the very first country worldwide where more number of electric cars were sold rather than fossil cars, all thanks to ample EV subsidies.
Meanwhile, sales to British customers are likely to rise increasingly, drivers are much more concerned that the charging network of the UK is not competent enough. Polling of the British driver by YouGov commissioned by an electric car charger firm, CTEK, found that around 78% think that charging infrastructure is not yet sufficient, in comparison to 65% in the other countries surveyed across the Europe.
Source credit: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/apr/25/uk-replaces-france-as-europe-second-largest-electric-car-market