Registrations of plug-in cars have accelerated rapidly over the first six months of 2015.
They have grown 256% against the same period last year and surpassed the 2014 full-year total with six months to spare but there has been a warning over only buying the latest types of cars to avoid massive depreciation when reselling.
New analysis by Go Ultra Low shows that motorists are switching on to the money-saving benefits of buying a plug-in electric vehicle.
From January to June, 14,586 new registrations of ultra low emission vehicles (ULEV) were made, a significant year-to-date increase on the 4,096 of the same timeframe in 2014.
The record volumes exceed last year’s 14,498 annual total registrations of vehicles eligible for Government’s Plug-in Car Grant, the highest volume ever at the year’s halfway point. The same comparison of January-June registrations for 2014 against 2013 saw an increase of 163%*, the robust rises emphasising the sustained and increasing scale of the UK electrically-powered vehicle market.
Best seller was the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV (7,255), followed by the Nissan LEAF (2,964) and BMW i3 (1,111).
In Wales, the number of EVs registered was 351, compared to 100 cars a year earlier.
Three electric cars are among the worst first year depreciators in a “Bottom 10” released by motor trade valuation market leaders Glass’s.
The Renault Fluence, Citroen C-Zero and Nissan LEAF E have all lost more than three-quarters of their value after covering 12,000 miles during the last 12 months.
Rupert Pontin, head of valuations at Glass, said, “The motor trade and the used car buying public remain interested in electric cars but are still reticent to actually buy them in numbers – and these depreciation figures reflect that fact.
“To be fair, these three EVs are among some of the least attractive on the market – the Fluence and C-Zero both have a ‘last generation’ feel while the LEAF E is on the bottom rung of the LEAF range – but their presence does reflect the fact that the EV sector remains sluggish.”
