Britain to buy £7bn of electric cars by the year 2014 - Car Rental News
Britain to buy £7bn of electric cars by the year 2014
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Car Rental News - 31/01/2011
A new survey forecasts a £7-billion windfall for the UK motor industry.
The British motor industry is likely to benefit from some £7 billion expected to be spent on electric cars between today and the year 2014. That is the conclusion put forth by a recent survey.
In the short term, however, motor dealers can expect a ‘fraught’ year in 2011. The faltering economy and dim consumer confidence are forecast to bring sales down by anything up to 10 per cent compared to last year, according to an industry expert.
GfK Automotive surveyed more than 5,000 motorists. It found that 1.8 per cent of those surveyed said they would ‘definitely’ buy an electric car at some point before 2014.
Extrapolated over the country’s total car-buying population of around 19.8 million households, this figure equates to sales exceeding 300,000 electric cars. GfK Automotive says this sales figure would amount to an industry worth £7.2 billion by 2014.
GfK Automotive arrived at this figure by using the Nissan Leaf as a benchmark. The recently-launched Leaf is an all-electric car.
The survey also found that three per cent of those queried would consider buying electric vehicles if worries about things like battery range have been addressed. This would represent another 500,000 car sales.
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