Oh Dear: Electric Car Sales Drop Sharply Due To High Prices And Bad Batteries

Poor sales of the greenest cars are undermining government plans to cut toxic roadside emissions, researchers have said.

There has been a dramatic slowdown in the switchover to pure electric cars in the past 12 months because of concerns about high prices and a lack of roadside chargers, according to a study published today.

Figures show that sales of electric cars — those with no exhaust emissions — increased by 7 per cent in 2017-18 compared with a year earlier, with 878 more cars being sold. The rate of growth dropped from 21 per cent the year before, when an additional 2,238 vehicles were sold.

In all, electric car sales were 13,586 in the year to the end of June, representing 0.6 per cent of all new vehicles on British roads.