Electric Cars - We can see the future (but it's not here yet!)

A recent study by the University of Leeds which looked at the costs of owning petrol, diesel or electric cars over four years has shown that electric cars are actually cheaper when running costs are taken into account.  In fact, pure electric cars bought in the UK in 2015 worked out to be 10% cheaper across four years than petrol or diesel cars of the same year.  This is because electricity is significantly cheaper than petrol or diesel, whilst servicing costs for electric vehicles are minimal, as the engines are much simpler.

In the UK, sales of diesel cars have dropped significantly. In fact, since 2016, new diesel car sales have declined from around 48% of new registrations to an estimated 5.3% in 2025.

Petrol cars remain popular, with around 59% of cars in the UK still being petrol-powered. However, their market share is declining, with around 28% of new registrations in 2024.

Hybrid cars account for around 14% of new car registrations as of 2025.

However, battery electric vehicles' share of the market has grown rapidly, from 0.4% of new registrations in 2016 to a projected 22% in 2025. As of October 2025, there are around 36 million cars in the UK, of which around 20% are electric.

Steadily improving access to public electric vehicle charging points, coupled with new battery technologies, like solid-state batteries that are currently in development for release from 2026-28, will likely lead to more motorists choosing to make the switch to electric vehicles in coming years.

The case for switching to electric cars is becoming increasingly convincing.  Owning and driving one reduces an individual’s carbon emissions considerably and it’s obvious that in the future, personal transport will be electric.  There are barriers to widespread adoption at the moment, but those barriers are already getting smaller.  

More manufacturers are developing electric and electric-petrol hybrid vehicles, more charging stations (both public and private) will be installed and improvements to battery technology will continue to reduce charging times and increase the range between charges for electric cars.  So whilst many of us will be using fossil fuel powered cars for a decade or more to come, increasing numbers of us will be making a switch to an electric vehicle as the 2030s draw nearer.