The UK is “tantalisingly” close to hitting the half a million milestone of electric cars being registered on UK roads, new Government data suggests. Analysis of the new figures from RAC shows that there are now an estimated 456,000 battery-electric cars on the UK’s roads.
RAC EV spokesperson Simon Williams said: “Our analysis shows we’re now tantalisingly close to hitting the magic milestone of half a million zero-emission battery electric cars on the UK’s roads, something we expect to see reached in a matter of months.
“The sight of more cars sporting a green flash on their number plates is a reminder of the fantastic progress that is being made in getting more drivers to go electric, but there’s still a lot of work to do when you consider that battery-electric cars still only represent 1.2% of all those on the roads.”
The focus for Government and industry now, says RAC, has to be encouraging as many people to confidently move away from their current petrol and diesel powered vehicles as possible.
“Key to this happening is a greater supply of pure EVs in the first place, which will help reduce prices, together with improvements to public charging networks,” continued Williams.
Fleets have been faced with long lead times of more than a year for some EVs, with leasing companies reporting record order books from company car drivers wanting a zero-emission vehicle.
We’re proud to be playing our part by offering an electric vehicle leasing scheme, together with home charger installation and a domestic electricity tariff offering an excellent value overnight rate for charging at home.”
The total number of cars capable of covering at least some zero-emission miles also looks like it will reach a landmark as it will soon top the 1m-mark.