So said Mark Twain about bankruptcy. This seems highly apt to the silent takeover of Electric Vehicles on Britain’s roads, and will almost certainly apply to many auto manufacturers in the years ahead.

The August 2023 figures from the SMMT are out, and it makes grim reading for legacy vehicle makers.

Fully 20.1% of all cars sold in the UK are fully electric. Diesel cars are now in their death throes and petrol only cars are now well under half, sitting at a catastrophic 40.6%.

Perhaps worse than this are the year-on-year growth figures for fully electric cars – a whopping 72.3% increase from August 2022.

Interestingly this data comes hard on the heels of the UK Prime Minister walking back some of the “green crap” (to quote Dave Cameron) policy decisions of recent years. What this data tells me – categorically – is that the “green crap” is here to stay.

And why is this? Is it because the UK public have suddenly fallen in love with green technologies, or is it that the alarmist headlines about the “climate emergency” have started to hit home?

Perhaps.

But I suggest that the most likely factors are these:

• Electric cars are simply superior to petrol & diesel cars. This is especially true for the second car, the “run-around” where mileage is lower and all charging can be done at home.
• The investment case for electric cars is very strong. Financial considerations, such as the reduced benefit in kind rate or the fact that car servicing costs are much reduced, play a key role.

EVs are a gateway to other clean energy tech

A recent survey by Zap Map showed that EV owners are 7 times more likely to have solar than non-EV households.

Whilst correlation isn’t causation, we can see that the likelihood is that once you dip your toe into the Green Energy Transition, you are then more open to adopting a broader range of smart & green technologies in your home.

And the logic – the investment case – is very strong. Once you have the EV, it suddenly becomes a natural progression to buy solar, and make your driving effectively free of charge.

And conceptually, once you have a car powered by a battery, you appreciate the beauty of battery technology, and are much less fearful of the battery breaking or wearing out on you.

And so it becomes logical to add a home storage battery into your home eco-system.

MOTO Exeter Services

If you pay only sporadic attention to the growth of Electric Vehicles, and more specifically of High Power charging infrastructure, you’ll almost certainly believe that UK infrastructure is – to be kind – inadequate.

Well you would be wrong. At Moto Exeter, there are now 32 Tesla & 24 Gridserve chargers. Gridserve are shortly to open an Electric Forecourt at Gatwick Airport. Almost every McDonalds & Starbucks on the A1 has at least 2 Instavolt Chargers (usually 4 or more).

What is the lesson for us as consumers?

Never underestimate the power of exponential growth.

In the past few years, the change in the market place has been dramatic. We are now in the mass-adoption phase of electric vehicles.

There is no longer a reason to delay joining this revolution.

Home storage batteries save you money. Solar panels save you money. Combined, solar & storage can earn you money through arbitrage opportunities.

What we are going to see is some serious turbulence amongst legacy car makers and amongst other parts of the automotive industry reliant on serving traditional vehicles. Strong players such as Motor Fuel Group are investing to stay relevant, but weaker companies with poor sites that are slow off the mark are going to struggle.

It will be interesting to see if Toyota can avoid becoming the next Kodak or Blockbuster.

Brimstone Energy – helping you navigate the Green Energy Transition

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