Electric cars sales fall off a cliff

You can see them now the annoying threesome salivating over this piece of news treported in the Guardian. It appears that sales of electric cars have dropped by, ahem, 90%. Oh frabjous day.

Just 55 of the green cars – whose fans include Boris Johnson, Jonathan Ross and Jade Jagger – were registered in 2009, in contrast to 397 in 2007, says the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders.

55... Bwahahahaha...

In the end you see it is the economy stupid. But, according to the enviro nutters at Guardian towers, there is a way round economic reality. And I bet you can guess what it is...

Rudi Schogger, managing director of Goingreen, which distributes the G-Wiz in the UK, said: "Some people might be waiting for the government grants to arrive before purchasing an EV." He added that, even with a grant, most of the new vehicles on the market will be more expensive than a G-Wiz.


Although sales of all new cars fell sharply in 2009 due to the recession, the drop in new registrations for electric cars was around eight times higher. Overall, 2m new cars were registered in 2009, the lowest level since 1995.

Yes that is 55 out of 2,000,000!

But of course this is where our governemnt steps in. Something completely unwanted and unloved is given new life by this so called Conservative lead coalition.

In January, the coalition will begin offering up to £5,000 towards the price of a series of newly launched electric cars, as part of a subsidy announced by the former Labour government. The Department for Transport (DfT) anticipates around 8,600 of the cars will be sold in the first year of the scheme. The government has so far committed £43m for the scheme to run until March 2012, with a review taking place in January 2012, but in yesterday's spending review it talked of "supporting consumer incentives for electric and other low-emission cars throughout the life of this parliament," suggesting the subsidy would continue after March 2012 though possibly at a lower rate.

It is important to note that while the Government is going to continue with this subsidy launch. It is cutting the budget for the armed forces, police and the prisons. Way to go Dave'n Nick.