The number of new cars registered in the UK has jumped by nearly 18% but electric vehicle demand is flatlining, prompting the industry to call for a VAT cut to stimulate sales.
Annual figures released by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) on Friday show 1.9m new cars were registered last year, well up on the previous year’s figure of 1.6m and the highest level since the 2.3m registrations of 2019.
The increase is a boost for the automotive industry after the pandemic led to supply chain problems and a shortage of vital computer chips that slowed production.
Across the year, 315,000 new battery electric vehicles were sold. That was 50,000 more than 2022, but the number being bought as a share of total registrations failed to grow as expected. They represented just 16.5% of the total, slightly down on last year’s 16.6%.
Wish we would just tax cars more and use that to put designated cycle lanes in or any form of public transport on its own lane.
There’s barely the capacity for a lot of UK roads. The only option would be to ban on street parking, but that’s the only option millions of people have.
Cars don’t need to be on all roads. Just close them to cars. Or have two roads and have one lane in each direction for cars.
But I’m more for the radical idea of redeveloping large parts of downtown or near downtown anyway. Level it and rebuild it with higher density and more public transport, cycling, walking and parks