The volume of new electric car searches, ad views and messages to retailers on the Auto Trader platform has dropped by almost two-thirds (65 per cent) between March 2022 and 2023, the company has reported.
Electric vehicles (EVs) then made up 16.3 per cent of new car ad views on the website, but by March 2023 the figure had fallen to 10.54 per cent, Auto Trader said.
Auto Trader's Road to 2030 has attributed this to the high cost of EVs, which were found to be, on average, 37 per cent more expensive than petrol and diesel cars. Moreover, other factors such as high interest rates and an increase in the cost of electricity also played a role.
The company stressed that these high costs are hampering the uptake of EVs, with the number of models priced between £20,000 and £30,000 significantly decreasing in the last year.
Overall, the number of petrol and diesel models costing less than £30,000 is nine times bigger than the number of EVs, Auto Trader...