A new electric vehicle charging station in Slough. Photograph: Maureen McLean/REX/Shutterstock
Booming electric car sales were a bright spot in a tough car market last year amid disruption to global supply chains hitting manufacturers, according to fresh data.
In its annual sales snapshot for 2021, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said carmakers sold 190,000 battery electric cars across the country last year, accounting for about 11.6% of total sales.
Reflecting growing appetite for greener vehicles, sales rose from 108,000 in 2020, when battery-powered cars accounted for just 6.6% of new cars bought in Britain. In December 2021 alone, electric cars made up 26% of sales, a record for a single month when physical dealerships were allowed to open during the Covid pandemic.
Against a backdrop of global supply chain disruption and shortages of crucial semiconductor chips, overall UK car industry sales for the year were up just 1% from 2020 levels to 1.65m, and remained almost a third below total sales in 2019.
However, sales of battery electric vehicles were a bright spot for the industry, the SMMT said, as Britons bought more electric cars in 2021 than in the previous five years combined.
Mike Hawes, the SMMT’s chief executive, said thelack of microchips used in everything from windscreen wipers to in-car entertainment systems would continue to serve as a drag on the car industry during 2022. The Guardian - link - Jasper Jolly - link - more like this - link
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