There have been plenty of headlines recently about the low down in the move to electric vehicles (EV).

While the governments dropping of the ban on new petrol and diesel vehicles from 2030 to 2035 didn’t help, there are plenty of other influencers on hand.

Cost conscious

The cost of living crisis is certainly on of the biggest. But also the lottery of the charging structure, from where chargers are, to their  often poor reliability.

However, EVs are expensive, and this is probably the biggest negative drag on sales when everyone is feeling poorer, and EVs represent new technology and a different world of motoring.

New car magazine What Car? has discovered that discounts on new electric vehicles (EVs) rose 323% in the last year. It comes as car manufacturers try to stimulate sales.

This figure come out of their exclusive Target Price mystery shopper data. Between November 2022 and November this year, the average combined cash and finance discount for fully electric vehicles in the UK increased by 323%. It means that the average combined discount is worth £4,399. By comparison, discounts for petrol and diesel models grew by 122.7% and 122.5% respectively.

British bargains

The Vauxhall Mokka-e 100kW GS Line was available with the largest percentage saving overall. In this case, discounts  are worth 23.9% of its list price. This equates to a saving of £9,087 on the list price of £38,985 – a 386% increase on the discount available last year.

The discounting trend extended to PCP finance deals too. Monthly payments on EV models dropped by an average of 16% over the same period. In one instance, the monthly PCP payment on a Mercedes EQC dropped from £1,094 to £594 during the period. This represents a 46% decrease, in part due to the attractive 0% interest rate terms now available – down from 9.9% last year.

There could be even better deals on the horizon. Next year, car manufacturers will be required by the UK Government’s new ZEV Mandate to achieve a 22% sales mix of EVs, or face heavy fines. “That’s a big uplift from the 15.6% achieved so far in 2023, with the low uptake of EVs among retail customers likely to be behind the discounts now being made available,” said What Car?

What Car? editor Steve Huntingford added: “The huge increase in discounts that we’ve seen over the last 12 months means they can actually make a lot of financial sense for retail customers, too.”

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