Despite a big uptake of electric vehicles in the fleet market, there’s a lot of work to be done within the industry as a whole, says our editor at large.

Fleet World editor at large Alex Grant

I remember the first time I drove a Tesla. It was a US-spec car, during a fleet-focused event on the outskirts of Munich Airport in autumn 2012 – and I knew instantly that the company would turn everything on its head. Supercar fast, with a long range, head-turning styling and a unique smartphone-like interface, the Model S injected a much-needed dose of desirability into the still-burgeoning EV market. I think we need a similar step change today.

The 2020s are an interesting time to be immersed in automotive tech, as manufacturers seem to be focused on becoming the highest-scoring card in a Top Trumps deck. Today’s electric saloons and SUVs make notorious family-movers such as the 1990s Lotus Carlton look timid – and superlatives seem to be the priority. Hundreds of miles of range, mind-bending acceleration times, tank turns and even rocket boosters are de rigueur, but the truly disruptive newcomers won’t need to do any of that. They’ll be cheap.

I am more optimistic than most about the apparent slowdown in EV demand. My gut feeling is the car-buying public is more concerned about the cost of going electric than relentless coverage of queues at charge points, dead batteries and spontaneous combustion. Most households are facing a financial shock from surging food, energy and mortgage payments, while rising interest rates, higher list prices and softer residual values have made PCP deals less affordable than they were a few years ago. That’s a retail market issue, not an EV issue.

Of course, it doesn’t help that going electric can still look pricey. I number- crunched a four-year PCP contract on one of the UK’s best-selling cars recently and found the electric version was 50% pricier than the petrol with an auto ‘box. That’s £125 a month. With a 6,000-mile yearly allowance, you won’t claw that back even if you’re doing all your charging overnight on a low-rate tariff.

Then there’s the tax system. We’re only a year away from EVs paying the same vehicle excise duty as everything else – including the £410-a-year ‘expensive car supplement’ for cars priced over £40,000. Five of the UK’s best-selling EVs have an entry price higher than that threshold – and another three straddle it. The Treasury persisting with a policy that will penalise some EVs with three times higher tax than their lower-priced fuel-burning counterparts is nonsensical, but it highlights the cost of going electric.

Change is coming, of course. The Dacia Spring, a £14,995 city-size crossover deservedly found its place in the headlines recently – though I think its 137-mile range and slow charging will limit its appeal to just one-car families. At £25,000 in UK spec and with twice the range, I can see the retro-modern new Renault 5 making an even bigger impact (especially if it’s as good to drive as the slightly larger Megane), while Citroën’s ë-C3X sounds interesting too.

Price competition between manufacturers and battery suppliers is going to be a catalyst for disruptive change over the next few years, especially as inflation eases, energy prices begin to settle down and the industry chases mandatory ZEV targets. I’m more excited by the concept of an affordable, low-weight, driver- focused compact EV than I am about the superlative-chasing at the end of the market. Hot hatch acceleration times and a 300-mile range is plenty – and can we have normal door handles and physical HVAC controls while we’re at it?

Who knows, maybe Tesla will be the one to deliver that. A Model 2 is, apparently, in the pipeline now that engineers aren’t tied up with Cybertruck-related complexity – and I’ve no doubt it’ll be a good product when it arrives. Whoever gets there first, I’m sure it’ll be as memorable and disruptive as the Model S was a decade ago.