Sales of electric cars doubled in Britain in August

SMM: according to British official data, although overall car sales in the UK fell by 5% in August this year, sales of electric vehicles doubled. Of this total, sales of pure electric vehicles reached 5589, compared with 3147 in the same period last year, and plug-in hybrid sales reached 2922, up from 910 in the same period last year. Electric cars accounted for 1/10 of all new car sales in the UK that month.

Despite the rise in electric car sales, the British car industry warned on September 4 that the British government plans to phase out the sale of new cars and diesel-powered cars by 2035. This plan requires a significant increase in spending on charging infrastructure.

(SMMT), an association of British automakers and traders, said it would cost the UK £16.7 billion, equivalent to installing 507 charging posts a day between now and 2035, to have enough charging stations for all new cars in the UK to become electric cars.

Mike Hawes, chief executive of SMMT, said the global auto industry had invested 54 billion pounds in the development of electric vehicles to meet emission standards. But the investment in charging infrastructure also needs the support of other enterprises or governments. Many car companies around the world share the same view, arguing that the government responsible for setting emission standards and possibly banning the sale of fuel cars should also be responsible for ensuring that there are adequate charging stations in the country.

So far this year, pure electric vehicles account for 5 per cent of total new car sales; hybrid vehicles account for 10 per cent of cumulative sales. In addition to traditional gasoline and diesel models, the UK is also considering banning the sale of hybrid models, but the idea has met with opposition from the car industry.

While sales of electric cars have been rising, there are signs that the epidemic has hurt consumers' ability to pay down payments, and electric cars tend to be much more expensive than fuel-powered cars. The Auto Trader survey found that the proportion of consumers considering buying electric cars had fallen from 16 per cent in January to 4 per cent last month, with half of them saying their financial situation had deteriorated because of the economic impact of novel coronavirus's epidemic.

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