Forget the environment. For most electric car drivers the main case for ownership these days is economic. Driven by falling costs, sales of electric cars risen by nearly a quarter last year to a record high of 473,348 – accounting for 23.4 per cent of all new car sales.
That means the UK is now the second-biggest buyer, per head, of electric vehicles (EVs) among the major economies of the world. It is second only to China (although when smaller countries are included, Norway is the clear winner – where 97 per cent of cars sold last year were electric).
Second-hand EVs, meanwhile, have seen an even bigger jump in popularity, with sales rising by 52 per cent in 2025.
Of course the environmental benefit continues to be a key factor for ownership among many of the UK’s 1.8 million EV drivers. An assessment by Science Times found that EVs typically produce 30 to 50 per cent fewer planet-warming carbon emissions during their lifetimes, which includes those generated during in their manufacture as well as their time on the road.
But the overwhelming case for ownership these days is financial, after sustained falls in the price of EVs in recent years.
This is partly because they have become cheaper to make, with battery costs in particular falling sharply. At the same time, the Zero Emission Vehicle mandate – legally binding EV sales targets set by the Government for car manufacturers – have prompted car makers to lower prices to ensure they meet their quotas.
As a result, EV prices for some new models are starting to fall to parity with their petrol equivalents – while the gap between electric and petrol cars more generally has narrowed considerably in the past few years.
The electric version of the Ford Puma, for instance – the country’s best-selling petrol car for three years in a row – is actually a few hundred pounds cheaper than the internal combustion engine model after a government electric car grant has knocked £3,750 off the price.
Overall, the gap between the price of a brand new electric and a brand new petrol car fell from 33 per cent in 2024 to 19 per cent last year – with the true gap thought to be significantly lower still, at around 10 per cent, when deals are factored in.
Parity is forecast at some point in the next two years by the government’s official climate change adviser, the Climate Change Committee. And secondhand EVs have already passed price parity with petrol cars; they are now around 10 per cent cheaper.
Experts say the falling prices are largely down to rapid technological advances, such as significant improvements in battery power, which make newer models increasingly more attractive than older ones.
On average, those who bought a second hand electric car in 2025 will save £1,450 a year over an expected 10 years of ownership, compared with buying a petrol equivalent – making a total of £14,500, according to calculations by the Energy & Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) research group.
And this figure factors in government plans, announced in the budget, to introduce a 3p per mile tax on EVs in 2028.
A separate ECIU analysis for new EVs finds that (including the 3p per mile tax) buying an electric car will save around £1,000 a year – although that saving is thought to have risen in recent weeks following further drops in EV prices.
The reintroduction last summer of grants worth up to £3,750 – after they were scrapped in June 2022 – should further increase the incentive to buy an EV.
There is a massive caveat, however – and a problem which the Government needs to fix if it wants more people to hang up the petrol nozzle for the last time. If you are unable to charge your car at home, you will save far less – and you may well end up spending a good bit more to own an EV.
That’s because if you have a driveway or garage, you can significantly reduce the cost of refuelling by taking advantage of cheaper overnight electricity prices. Using one of these flexible tariffs allows EVs to be charged for less than 2p per mile, compared with costs of around 15p per mile for a petrol or diesel car.
When it comes to the affordability of swapping to electric, that tariff can make the difference. By contrast, charging at home during the day works out at 8p a mile while the average cost of a fast charge at a public charge point costs 25p a mile.
Given the cost and convenience, it is no surprise that 90 per cent of EV drivers live in homes with a garage or driveway, according to EVA England, the electric vehicle association. But what about those millions of homes – 40 per cent of UK households – who don’t have a garage or driveway but want an electric car?
The number of public chargepoints in the UK may have shot up to more than 87,000 in recent years – with thousands more expected in the next few years – but provision is patchy, and for the vast majority of EV drivers, they can only ever act as a top-up.
Most charging really needs to be done at home: 5.7 million households in the UK are on terraces, which are less likely to have driveways and could benefit hugely from pavement charging. This is just starting to happen, to a very limited degree, in a handful of councils such as Richmond, Leeds and Sunderland.
However, around 80 per cent of local councils do not allow homeowners to install pavement charging, and the Highways Act gives councils the power to remove charging cables that could trip pedestrians or cause fires.
Those that do allow pavement charging force households to go through a lengthy and expensive planning process to get a gully – in which cables can run without getting in anyone’s way – put in. Without EV cable gullies, many EV users have been forced to run cables from their home and across the pavement. While this practice is not illegal, it could result in legal action being taken against EV owners if the cable causes injuries to a pedestrian.
A pavement gully typically costs between £600 and £1,000 to install, but the government’s EV charge point grant could contribute up to £350. Less common still, a gantry can be used, which allows cables to be held above head height over the pavement.
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Things do appear to be moving in the right direction, although progress is slow. A government consultation is underway to make it easier for electric vehicle drivers to install charging points across pavements.
Under the proposals, officials would drop the requirement for planning permission. It should do so. The government should also heed widespread calls to cut the unfair VAT rate applied to public charging from 20 per cent to 5 per cent, to bring it in line with the tax charged on vehicles charged at home.
Given the cost savings, environmental benefit and customer satisfaction levels, the government should be doing everything it can to push EVs harder than it is.
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