Why EVs just can't catch a break

It was a moment of marketing genius. Amid the financial crash of 2008, Elon Musk had no business selling expensive cars. But one inherent feature of the electric-powered drive-train put it over with one of America’s most influential TV personalities. 

Driving side-by-side with a ‘normal’ vehicle, Jay Leno showed how Tesla’s first production car was “eerily quiet” but exhibited rapid acceleration, leaving internal combustion-powered rivals in the dust. 

Until that thrilling moment, EVs were lauded by two uncool groups: science fiction fans and environmentalists. The Roadster, with its Lotus Elise chassis and its 3.7 seconds to 60 MPHs, flipped the script: EVs could now be perceived as beautiful and fast. A pin-up for speed freaks was born. 

Soon these vehicles would be on every street corner around the world and they would help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, that was the story at the time at least. But the reality has been very different. 

It took nearly a decade for other manufacturers to get onboard with the ‘EV revolution’ and hybrids actually proved to be just as popular. 

Now, more than 17 years after the launch of the Roadster, electric cars only make up a small fraction of new vehicles purchased in the UK. 

Of the 36 million cars on Britain’s roads, only 3.7% are pure battery powered and just 1.3 million can be described as electric, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders. 

The industry has hit a wall. The early adopters, as they so often do, have embraced the technology. Their garages are full of EVs. But electric ownership is yet to hit the mainstream. 

People have ‘range anxiety’, we’re told, and there aren’t enough charging stations across the UK. But now a breakthrough in China means it will only take five-minutes or less to fully charge an EV. 

If the news gets out, then surely more people are likely to buy EVs? It isn’t that simple. Polling from YouGov on the issue shows that cost is still a major factor. 

And, worryingly, EV hesitant high-income Brits are even more likely than average to see the upfront cost as a deterrent (60%).

That factor is very revealing. It actually tells us that EVs have a reputational issue, rather than an engineering one, and it seems to me that the manufacturers are answering the wrong questions. 

Should we make our cars charge quicker? Sure. But the real quandary is ‘how can we make our cars more desirable and an ultimate accessory for travel?’