Autotrader sees used EV demand surge: comment

“With war in the Middle East sending the cost of petrol and diesel skywards, we are seeing a surge in the sale of both new and used EVs as more and more drivers look to end their vulnerability to volatile oil markets over which they have no control. 

“Despite this acceleration in both the UK’s, and the world’s, transition to EVs, we continue to hear calls from some parts of our industry for the UK’s EV sales targets to be watered down, and slow the country’s transition to electric driving. Doing this would this keep millions of families stuck driving petrol cars that cost hundreds, even thousands, of pounds a year more in the midst of a cost of living crisis. It would weaken the UK’s energy security, keeping us reliant on imports of oil from abroad. And it would undermine the future of our car industry, holding it back from making the transition to building the new, electric vehicles to which our major export markets are inexorably moving - a recipe for factory closures and mass redundancies”. 

A report by CBI Economics for the ECIU revealed that a failure by the car industry to make the transition to manufacturing EVs could see its contributions to the UK economy fall by as much as 73%, or £34.1bn, and over 400,000 jobs could be lost. Conversely, economic output could increase by over £16bn, and 167,000 new jobs could be created, if a rapid and successful transition takes place. [2]