While everyone from politicians and campaigners to increasingly desperate-sounding vehicle manufacturers are urging the consumer to buy electric, it seems that plenty of people remain less than convinced, with the result being that they are hanging on to their old, internal combustion-engined cars for longer.
The initial sharp uptake of EVs has certainly slowed, and news stories about poor residual values and public charging fiascos has rocked customer confidence.
For the industry, this is a glaring problem. It has committed, after consultation, to the Government’s legislation that 80 per cent of new car sales will be EVs by 2030, and that by 2035 that figure should have reached 100 per cent.
Until 2030, it is on an increasing sliding scale (it’s 22 per cent in 2024, for example), which is combined with CO2 figures in a complex but apparently watertight arrangement that can’t be wriggled out of.
Confusingly, manufacturers can bank, borrow and convert “credits” if they are over or under these figures for the next few years, but the bottom line is that for every non-EV (or, strictly speaking, vehicles with zero emissions at the tailpipe) it sells above its quota, it will get fined £15,000 for the pleasure of doing so.
Now you can see why manufacturers in the UK market are desperate for you to buy EVs, and hence the appearance of attractive finance deals and retail price cuts at the moment.
What are the best alternatives to EVs?
Faced with the prospect that the journey to electric may be a longer, bumpier ride, many manufacturers are now restarting internal combustion engine development programmes, particularly where they are part of a hybrid powertrain.
Audi and Porsche are two companies that recently unveiled plans to invest in hybrid technology well into the next decade, although such vehicles wouldn’t make a difference in the UK market, which doesn’t include them in the zero tailpipe definition.
Commute relatively short distances but need a large family vehicle at the weekends? A large plug-in hybrid (PHEV) SUV could run almost exclusively on electric power in the week but still offer all the versatility of a conventional vehicle for longer weekend trips.
Then there is a small car like the latest “full hybrid” Renault Clio E-Tech.
Powered by a modern, efficient petrol engine, two electric motors and a small, light battery, it charges itself and can run for short distances in purely electric mode, or achieve a claimed 70mpg thanks to the combination of the two powertrain technologies working together – all for just over £20,000.
In a motoring landscape where the new Volvo EX90 electric luxury SUV, at 2.7 tonnes, more than five metres in length and two metres wide, and costing £100,000, is given a substantial tax incentive for wealthy business owners and meets the Government zero-emission criteria, the little Clio is left out in the cold – and that seems more than a little absurd.
As for the existing petrol car fleet, particularly those of an enthusiast and sporting nature, many owners are pinning their hopes on sustainable fuels.
More accurately, these can be split into sustainable fuels and e-fuels, the former made from recycled farm biomass waste, and the latter by converting a natural energy such as wind power into a denser, liquid fuel. Some car manufacturers, such as Porsche and now BMW, have invested heavily in the technology, and increasingly see it playing a part in a future mix of energy options.
The EU’s own legislation for decarbonising transport over the next decade has made a space for such new fuels, unlike the British Government’s approach.
These fuels aren’t available yet in the kind of quantities that can make a difference, but it is possible to have sustainable fuel delivered to your property and run a car on it without any modification, and Porsche has begun using its own e-fuel for the Porsche Supercup racing championship. Formula One will be moving this way in 2026.
What’s happened to diesel cars?
Let’s just say, though, that you don’t feel the time is right yet to make the switch to EVs. What are your other options?
It wasn’t long ago that the motoring public was being encouraged through fiscal means to buy diesel cars. In fact, oil-burning vehicles made up around half of the UK’s new-car market.
Setting aside the valid environmental concerns for a moment, that is a shame in some respects because, as a fuel, diesel has a number of inherent advantages and is particularly well-suited to certain vehicles.
A diesel engine, with its strong pulling power and better economy, was a natural fit for the fashionable larger SUV market, also endowing some larger vehicles with ranges of more than 600 miles.
Today, while smaller diesels are virtually extinct, and not especially recommendable as a used purchase (particularly for shorter journeys), there is still a market for big diesel engines in luxury vehicles, particularly as they can be cheaper to buy than their equivalent hybrid and EV counterparts.
