Electric cars.

My experience of watching it is sensationalist cherry picking scattershot wittering nonsense, but each to their own!

 

It is a cunning plan? 'Having a plan' isn't the same as vehicles already on the road not still the same risk level as they were before the plan. I don't know how great or small that risk is, but I have seen reports of breakdown recovery companies not being able to go near damaged EVs until they have been checked to ensure they aren't 'live'.

 

I agree absolutely - that's why I don't post any!

 

Society Irish Motor Industry today released the figures for new car registrations for 2024 with a decline of 1% compared to 2023. New registrations of cars for 2024 were 121,195 compared to 122,400. From the 1st January the grants for BEV's decreased from €5000 to €3500 but unlike England where grants to private buyers have been scrapped, Ireland still has grants for private buyers with grants for businesses being mainly towards commercial vehicles

So even though new car registrations were down 1%, new registrations for BEV's has declined by 23.6%.
New registrations of BEV's for 2024 were 17,459 compared to 22,852 in 2023. BEV's market share now stands at 14.41%.

I think the Irish figures are a true reflection of where the UK is with going fully electric. If the UK still had grants for private buyers instead of these benefit in kind, which reduces the monthly costs greater than what is offered in Ireland, then I don't think new BEV registrations would be as good as what they have been.

 

I think the link below shows how the governments push to go to BEV's has changed the market, especially in the UK compared to Ireland.

The gap between leasing and private buyers of new cars has widened significantly since the benefits to the leasing sector were introduced. Unlike the private sector, it's very rare you will ever be the owner of a new car when you go down the leasing sector route as the car tends to be the property of the manufacturer and will have already be sold to a used car dealer prior to the lease contract ending. Only because of Covid have I ever had the chance of purchasing a lease vehicle that we have taken out a contract. Where with PCP, you at least have a guarantee option of being the owner at the end of your contract should you wish to

I think, when someone actually purchases something, it's because they want to. Giving perks to the leasing sector only on BEV's will give mix messages on where the market on BEV's is currently at. Are they leasing a BEV because they want to be seen as doing there part for the environment or was the discount on a BEV to good to turn down? If the perks were equal for ICE, what would the market share be for BEV's, the same or less?

Going forward, ownership of a brand new car is going to be for the few, not the many.

https://www.ey.com/en_uk/newsroom/2024/08/two-consecutive-years-of-growth-in-new-car-registrations

 

@gks I think you are right about ownership of brand new cars in the future. I purchased both of my last 2 cars brand new, but heavily discounted. I don't do very high mileage, around 8k per year, have cars serviced annually, and keep them as long as they remain reliable. Previous car was moved on when the bill to get it through MOT started to rise and there were great discounts at a local dealership. I've had the current car over 8 years. I have no need or desire to change my car every 3 years so my costs are cosiderably lower than any lease option I have come across.
I think that may be very different when this car need to be replaced, although my current expectation is to replace it before ICEs are banned and that will see me through until my driving days are well and truly over.

 

That’s a new car in my world. Last one - 17 yrs. Current one - 12+ so far. Just getting used to it.

 

How we have gone backwards, I used to know a fair few people who bought a new car every two or three years, often passing the old one on, at a fair price to other family members or friends.
How did it get like this, that nobody apart from big earners can even consider doing that anymore, something has gone really wrong.