“The future is already here, it’s just not very evenly distributed.”
This famous quote by William Gibson seems apt when thinking about the adoption of electric vehicles.
It does not seem long ago that spotting a Tesla was a novelty.
Today cars bearing the distinctive green stripe on their number plates to indicate they are electric are everywhere.
In December of 2022 EVs achieved their biggest-ever share of car sales in the UK, accounting for nearly a third of all new cars sold and surpassing the sale of diesel vehicles.
With the 2030 deadline for the end of all new petrol and diesel car sales looming ever closer, it feels as though the tipping point is almost here.
In Sweden it has already happened, with the majority of cars now plug-in EVs. Such is demand that the Swedish government has cut subsidies, having decided the market no longer needs a helping hand.
“The development of technologies tends to follow an S-Curve: they improve slowly, then quickly, and then slowly again,” says tech analyst Benedict Evans.
“And at that last stage, they’re really, really good. Everything has been optimised and worked out and understood, and they’re fast, cheap and reliable,”
Tesla may have blazed a trail for EVs, but they are far from alone in this fast growing sector.
Volkswagen, Nissan, Mini, Polestar, MG, BMW and Audi all have popular models on the market.
One of our clients, Mr Charger, has a growing network of EV charger installers across the UK and demand for driveway chargers is soaring.
The public charging network is rapidly expanding too, with somewhere in the region of 40,000 points already in place.
With ever-improving batteries, and more places to charge, “range anxiety” is likely to soon be something people talk about in the past tense.
In the United States adoption of EVs has been considerably slower than in Europe and China. This is in part because of the popularity of SUVs and pick-up trucks.
But with a new generation of 4×4 EVs this looks certain to change.
“For car buyers, a new reality is setting in: You don’t necessarily have to pay more to go electric. The automobile industry may never be the same,” reported the Wall Street Journal this week.
“As this transition unfolds, it could soon put buyers of gas-powered vehicles in an unprecedented position: They’ll have to pay a premium to stick with last-generation technology.”
