There’s a reason the market is rejecting electric cars

They are cheap to run. They rarely break down. And perhaps most of all they are far better for the environment. For the last decade we have been endlessly lectured about how electric cars are so completely superior to the petrol variety that they would quickly dominate the market. But hold on. Now that some of the subsidies and mandates are being removed sales are collapsing. Left to themselves, it turns out that most drivers don’t don’t want them.

According to figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders released yesterday, sales of EVs slumped by 17 per cent in November, the largest ever monthly fall. After taking a larger and larger share of the market for the last few years, sales now appears to have gone into reverse. Indeed the Office for Budgetary Responsibility had forecast that EVs would account for 67 per cent of the market by 2027 but it has halved that, predicting just 38 per cent by that year.