I have just been reading an article on the Fleet sector in Australia and I quote “the Mitsubishi iMEV will go on sale in Australia for $48,000 – you can buy an equivalent sized vehicle for $26,000. You can go an awful long way on the difference.”

And that really sums it up. If you look at our BVRLA EV guide we calculate a conservative £5,000 additional cost of ownership over 3 years and that is after building in a £5,000 gift to the buyer from the cash strapped British taxpayer. So £10,000 in real terms.

It is expected that in the Autumn statement the Government will confirm the £5,000 subsidy will carry on for another year or maybe two but at current rate of take up this is a pretty safe gamble and will not cots them too much money.

I would contend that no market should be so reliant on tax payer subsidy to make it work and that if we are to see the EV market take up that we need to achieve our emission targets the manufacturers need a root and branch review of pricing policies to ensure that they not only match conventional power trains but beat them in the “cost of ownership” race.

Until then and unless a fleet wishes to take an expensive gamble I guess the choice for most will have to be the lowest polluting conventional engine or hybrid vehicle available.

John Lewis,

Chief Executive – BVRLA