Probably pre-registered by leasing companies to inflate the figures.

Who actually BUYS these cars, rather than leases them?

I’m seeing adverts for ‘Self Charging Hybrid’ vehicles. which seem to fly in the face of what we’re being told we ‘need’ to have.

Martin.

Who actually buys electric cars? Well me for one. I’ve got a Fiat 500e, it’s a perfect city car. It’s quiet, nippy and nicer to drive than an ICE equivalent. And right now it’s charging up for free thanks to the solar panels on my roof.

On 7 April 2026 at 15:13 Vic Said:

On 7 April 2026 at 11:06 blowlamp Said:

Probably pre-registered by leasing companies to inflate the figures.

Who actually BUYS these cars, rather than leases them?

 

 

Martin.

I read the other day that Private sales of BEV’s has gone up.

Like Wink, we’ve recently bought one, and the showroom was very busy with folks looking at small BEV’s.

Virtually all BEVs eventually become privately owned within 5 years of registration.  This nonsense about pre-registation is simply an anti-EV myth.  Dealerships have been pre-registering new cars for decades gone by. Only petrol/diesel in the last century!

Here is another owner.  A BEV is a far better choice than a PHEV, in my opinion, for most users.  Self-driving hybrids are a low-level con by the manufacturers/dealerships/sales people to continue the use of oil and keep the maintenance income arriving at the dealership.  It will soon change to all new cars being BEV.  People need to get used to it, for the sake of our environment.

The arguments are akin to the eventual cigarette smoking restrictions eventually implemented earlier this century?  My Dad died through smoking cigarettes, btw.

Or the compulsory fitting and wearing of seat belts in vehicles.  Just cannot rely on some of the population to act sensibly.

Well, ignoring his familiarity with spreadsheets that means that he somewhat randomly applies terms like row, column, cell, line…

Either he is deliberately trying to deceive in order to justify his beliefs or he is incapable of properly interpreting the statistics he is presenting. I do assume that he is getting his data from a reliable source (UK Government data) and has meticulously gone through every EV model on the market (any omission devalues any conclusions).

Couple of broad-brush comments – he commits the cardinal sin with any presentation of statistics by cherry-picking his examples and almost explicitly saying that these represent the overall trend. At one point, he was talking about how “red” the left hand side of the spreadsheet view was when to my eyes the red on the left was less than the green on the left. Picking out the worst examples and largely ignoring those that were less valuable to his argument undermines the suggestion that this is an objective assessment. In any case, do we know if a model going out of favour is due to factors other than an anti-EV trend, or just introduction of a new model? He talks about a drop in sales of one Renault model as if it is highly significant when registrations dropped by 92 in 2025 – against total registrations of that model of something like 28000. Not statistically very significant?

Much of his argument is based on comparison with 2025 registrations. Partway through the chat he mentions that 2025 figures are not complete and says something like, “even if these are doubled…” But he still goes on to use the numbers as if they are full-year. He does, at the end, suggest that in fact these are 9 month figures and does some sums to extrapolate to get a full year. So we do not actually know what the row-by-row figures are.

Maybe worst of all, there is no context. He misleads by showing a drop in the increase in registrations as if this is as important as a drop in registrations. It is clear, if one ignores his red/green labelling, that EV registrations have increased. How could we get a better feel, then, for what these numbers represent? Well, he could have looked at numbers as a proportion of total cars sold. At the end of the video, I have no idea how many cars in total were registered, and maybe there were market-wide factors that are relevant.

In other words, the numbers presented were interesting, but I would not draw any conclusions at all from them without a lot more information about the bigger picture within which they sit. I am not saying that his position statement that “EV sales are past their peak” is wrong. I am saying that he has not produced any reliable evidence that supports this position. Well, that’s not quite correct. His statement that sales are past their peak is wrong. What is correct is that there was an increase in sales (based on his 9-to-12 months extrapolation) and it is the rate of increase that has fallen.

He explains in the first minute or two that the data comes from the DVLA.

Anyone wanting to prove him wrong can presumably access the same data, put it in a spreadsheet and show their own results, along with how they got there. 😉

Martin.

From the Model Engineers point of view are there any hybrids that are the equivalent of the ”domesticated van’ type like the Partner and Kangoo that can conveniently load a loco or lathe and pull a trailer? Though the downside of having one would increase my temptation to buy more toys.

That will be “pre-registrations”. Been going on for years so garages, importers etc can reach their sales targets. Often their discounts or other incentives depend on hitting a certain number of sales.

Robert.

Love my EV – owners I’ve talked to are the same.  Smooth, quiet, fast, what’s not to like.

They are not so convenient for longer journeys, but I’ve long since lost any range anxiety.  The truth is my bladder doesn’t have as good a range as the car nowadays, so a 45 minute fill up (and loo/coffee shop visit) every 200 miles is no problem.

And, normally, once a week I plug it into my home charger and charge overnight on cheap electricity; much easier than a trip to the pumps 😊😊

(And yes, Duncan, it does that motorway car following trick, but that’s not just available on EVs)

There was a pretty balanced programme about EVs on Ch5 last night.

Key takeaways?

Manufacturers range estimates were under perfect conditions – and in the real world would be very much lower and also dependent upon driving style and temperature.

EVs only made real sense if you could plug-them in at home. Commercial chargers were scarcer outside London & SE – and expensive (in somes cases more than petrol/mile)

EVs depreciated very quickly (30-40% in first year) but second hand EVs could therefore be good value.

Conclusion. Good for some but not for all.

I’ve just replaced my 4 year old Alfa Guilia with a new (pre-reg) version. Same car but younger and some extra gizmos. I did so because they stopped making them last year and I very much like the car. The first was going to be a ‘keeper’ but the deal offered was very good and this new car will be kept and loved.

When I purchased the first one, it was at least £10K less then anything like it in an EV. At the time I calculated that was about 70,000 miles I could drive “for free” (about 14 years for me) – so the whole ‘it’s cheaper to run’ argument didn’t stack up for me. Second hand EVs are much cheaper but so are second hand (or pre-reg) ICE vehicles.

Last weekend, I drove up to Warwick and back, about 170 miles, round trip. On the way up, I had her in active cruise/eco mode, set at 70mph and averaged 42.6mpg. On the way back, I tried ‘hyper-miling’ by sitting between 55-60mph, driving manually in eco-mode with the performance screen on (which shows instant consumption data). I got 48.6mpg but did power up a few hills (so as not to annoy the truck drivers too much).

I’ve nothing against EVs in principle. I think they will continue to develop and the charging network will improve over time. However, I’m happy with my current car and much of the expense of running it, is simply down to taxation rather than anything else (in other words it’s a political decision). This EV advantage will of course not last, as the Treasury will want it’s share of the EV action once everyone is driving them. We will also kill off our car industry in the process too.

Regards,

IanT

On 9 April 2026 at 10:37 not done it yet Said:

On 8 April 2026 at 12:28 blowlamp Said:

How do you explain the figures from this video?

 

Martin.

Hahahaha hahaha, no real need to even try.  That person, is a liar and a fool – except for getting paid lots of money by youtube for making anti-EV claims.  At best, he cherry-picks isolated events and at best simply bends the truth to suit his following supporters.🤣🤣🤣   Are you one of his ‘disciples’?

barry crapton is another – just out to make money on youtube.  Apparently, he actually owns and drives an EV – but clearly the few anti-EV misfits realise there is more money to be made from youtube, than telling the truth.

Those that cannot, or will not, see his videos as utter lies must either be anti-EV, blind or stupid.  He will be followed by the below average of the population, mostly.

I never watch his videos, but occasionally read the comments and sometimes stir up his followers by quoting the truth.  Most of them clearly cannot think for themselves, or are useless at reading and maths.  Otherwise, they would soon see through his lies and misinformation.

 

Any examples of his ‘lies’? 😉

Martin.

Getting back to actually owning and using the thing…

A good question, Bazyle.

I drive a petrol-engined Renault Kangoo for much the same the reason you give, being able to cart hefty models and bits of machinery, oh and the occasional bags of garden-waste to the tip… And overnight accommodation for me at times.

I think they will come, since electric vehicles larger than those, the ubiquituous 1t vans, are appearing on the roads now. (E.g. VW’s BEV equivalent, I suppose it is, to the long-lived ‘Transporter’ range; and a battery-powered version of the similar Vauxhall van).

When, is another matter of course, but these compact van/car crosses are very popular.  One thing that may encourage their development is the ‘Motability’ and similar, and taxi, trade.

They also have the advantage of that compactness if you don’t live in leafy suburbia or on a farm. It’s become fashionable to make cars are bulky as possible without obviously more internal space. And for people to buy huge vans, Range-rovers and American-style builders’ pick-ups apparently irrespective of need… then move into narrow streets like mine, of terraced homes built before cars were common and therefore with limited, difficult parking.

So the Kangoo is ideal for such surroundings – only of course, there is nowhere to park its electric descendant to recharge it!

(Of about 60 houses in the road, barely half a dozen and those all newer ones, have their own drive, and that so small that larger cars usually overhang the pavement. One such house does host an electric car with domestic charging-point. )