5 minutes ago, Stonekeeper said:

It is strange and needs addressing

Kyle (the presenter) states that if the driver had touched the accelerator pedal it would stop the rapid acceleration because then the traction control would kick in?

They were deliberately making the vehicle do what it did by setting it to creep and releasing the brake pedal only.

Hmm, I think that they were doing what anybody does who drives an automatic, and that is when in traffic, apply the brake, and when the traffic begins to move, slowly lift your foot off the brake and the drive train creeps forward or backwards. My Superb did that, and so does the Kodiaq. Now my MK2 Superb did it very gently, but the MK3 and Kodiaq will happily shoot off to about 5 mph with no throttle input. Put it into neutral, and the engine idles at about 800 rpm; select drive, and it jumps to 1000 rpm. I queried this with my service dept, who told me that all Euro 6 engines do it as part of the emissions control.

It seems that more EV's are failing their first MOT than other cars so they are not quite so maintenance-free after all, it seems. The main reason for failing is down to tyres, it is claimed.

Why so many electric cars fail their first MOT (and how to prevent it) | Regit

1 hour ago, Graham Butcher said:

It seems that more EV's are failing their first MOT than other cars so they are not quite so maintenance-free after all, it seems. The main reason for failing is down to tyres, it is claimed.

Why so many electric cars fail their first MOT (and how to prevent it) | Regit

I do wonder if the lack of a mandatory maintenance schedule for Tesla is a contributory factor?

Although saying that many cars undergoing their first MOT will be recently returned from lease and may not have had a recent service or inspection, especially as many (none Tesla) EV's have a 2 year/20k miles serviced interval?

When I purchased my XJ8 I was a little staggered to read it had failed its first MOT on bald tyres (cords exposed!!) at 14k miles, despite a full Jaguar main dealer service history🤔

Clearly EV drivers are no different to other drivers... and just jump in and go without even the most basic checks. My tyres are checked monthly for wear and even then I got caught out by excessive wear on the inner edge of NSF tyre. Spotted it before it failed and found the tyre had been damaged in a pot hole, but still missed by monthly check. How many drivers go months without checking stuff?

Scary news article from BBC about ICE pollution and it highlighted by "Dave Takes it on" Youtuber as well as upcoming VED shocks....

BBC News

I inhaled traffic fumes to find out where air pollution g...

BBC health correspondent James Gallagher gets his blood analysed to understand how air pollution is killing us.

Edited 12 February12 Feb by lol-lol

Yes I saw that BBC report about 2 weeks ago and dismissed it as just another part of the official narrative to push electric cars. It also coincided with a whole raft of other things designed to increase the sales of electric cars as sales are dropping and making this ambitious 28% of all new car sales appear impossible.

1 hour ago, Graham Butcher said:

Yes I saw that BBC report about 2 weeks ago and dismissed it as just another part of the official narrative to push electric cars. It also coincided with a whole raft of other things designed to increase the sales of electric cars as sales are dropping and making this ambitious 28% of all new car sales appear impossible.

You refute the scientific evidence of the blood test of absobed ICE pollution ?

You also refute the SMMT data that EV sales are increasing ? There was of course a big surge of EV sales in December 2025 for sales to hit the EV 28% mandate. 2026 mandate is 33% which like 2025 will be tough. The UK suffers from driving on the left hand side of the road so we receive most models a bit later than the RHD spec which are produced first as there is greater demand.

A combination of more EVs getting the full £3750 UK subsidy, electricity becoming cheaper in April and fuel duty going up in September should help EV demand kick on from the mid 20%s into the 30% due to sheer economic argument. Also EV getting cheaper due to battery prices continuing to fall which makes Chinese and Korean EV cheaper as well as the European EVs, Nissan-Sunderland, Renault-France and Mini-Germany getting the full EV grant and others may be added. Of course the grant basically only negates the VAT so really it these cars being virtually VAT free. Hopefully public charging VAT with go from S to E or Z rated so that it becomes even cheaper to run an EV which is already much cheaper than ICE to much lower servicing cost and charging if you can charge at home but expectedly much cheaper for Public as well soon with the combination of the removal of the most of the ECO levies and VAT charging on public charging cost.

58 minutes ago, lol-lol said:

You refute the scientific evidence of the blood test of absobed ICE pollution ?

You also refute the SMMT data that EV sales are increasing ? There was of course a big surge of EV sales in December 2025 for sales to hit the EV 28% mandate. 2026 mandate is 33% which like 2025 will be tough. The UK suffers from driving on the left hand side of the road so we receive most models a bit later than the RHD spec which are produced first as there is greater demand. I suggest that there are many more people in London using the underground on a daily basis than there are spending spending as much time on the roads breathing the alleged heavilly polluted air as

A combination of more EVs getting the full £3750 UK subsidy, electricity becoming cheaper in April and fuel duty going up in September should help EV demand kick on from the mid 20%s into the 30% due to sheer economic argument. Also EV getting cheaper due to battery prices continuing to fall which makes Chinese and Korean EV cheaper as well as the European EVs, Nissan-Sunderland, Renault-France and Mini-Germany getting the full EV grant and others may be added. Of course the grant basically only negates the VAT so really it these cars being virtually VAT free. Hopefully public charging VAT with go from S to E or Z rated so that it becomes even cheaper to run an EV which is already much cheaper than ICE to much lower servicing cost and charging if you can charge at home but expectedly much cheaper for Public as well soon with the combination of the removal of the most of the ECO levies and VAT charging on public charging cost.

Whoa there, hold your horses.

There are many things that affect people in many different ways. There were a couple of whistleblowers about their findings of the air quality on the London Underground, with readings many times worse than were found standing in the middle of the most congested roads in London. This was also backed up by scientific studies and reports carried by hospitals and doctors, which proved the air there was directly responsible for the men's chronic breathing and general health problems. You say that this one man's tests are conclusive when it was possibly a means to an end?

I suggest that more people are exposed to poor air on the tubes then there are being exposed to the road traffic fumes on a daily basis, and those on the underground are alo more likely to be exposed for longer periods to those using the roads in the fashion that James Gallagher did for his "experiment"

The SMMT figures do not show actual true sales, i.e., cars that have been sold and are being used on the roads, they only show cars that have theoretically been sold, when in reality many of these have been registered and then within days or weeks, declared as SORN and placed into storage. These cars are NOT contributing to the clean air that I keep hearing so much about are they? In fact there is an argument to be made that they are adding to overall pollution levels as they have had to be made and shipped all around the world and then become stored and later sold as used cars with delivery miles on them.

The DVLA are aware of the number of new car registrations, they are also know what their drivetrains are, ie, petrol, diesel, HEV (predominantly petrol), PHEV, again petrol) and BEV. They will also be aware of how many of each type are also subsequently declared as SORN and their drivetrain types, as well as dates that they were first registered and when they were SORN and therefore can also tell how long that period was, how long the car has been with each new registered owner and also tell you who these keepers are, traders or private people. But they are not willing to provide such information, why do you think that might be??

Edited 12 February12 Feb by Graham Butcher

First registrations are just smoke and mirrors as the SMMT know well enough as do the Government, DVLA / DfT, Secretary or Stare for Transport etc etc. The real statistic that the HMRC & Treasury must know is. The wholesaling and retailing figures for DERV & Petrol at Filling Stations. Not including to Depots for Goods Vehicles or Farms / Building & Industrial sites. Comparisons for 1995, 2005, 2015 & 2025.

EVs market share actually went down in January 2026 compared to January 2025, not exactly encouraging data even if it is early in the year.

Considering that market share last year was also 4.6% adrift of the ZEV mandate I struggle to see them getting back on track this year.

The boss of Centrica/British Gas was in the news this week saying that electricity will be more expensive in 2030 than during the early days of the Ukraine war so it wouldn't surprise me if that will cause a lot of people to think twice before investing.

Whilst I have just over another 2 years with the Born I'm far from sure I'll go for an EV next time - will have to see how things are at the time. The economics only just stacked up this time and I could easily see them going the other way next time.

2 minutes ago, Dieselgate said:

EVs market share actually went down in January 2026 compared to January 2025

Would that not be partly due to the need to get the registrations in before the end of 2025.

They cannot register them twice.

Edited 12 February12 Feb by Stonekeeper

30 minutes ago, Graham Butcher said:

Whoa there, hold your horses.

There are many things that affect people in many different ways. There were a couple of whistleblowers about their findings of the air quality on the London Underground, with readings many times worse than were found standing in the middle of the most congested roads in London. This was also backed up by scientific studies and reports carried by hospitals and doctors, which proved the air there was directly responsible for the men's chronic breathing and general health problems. You say that this one man's tests are conclusive when it was possibly a means to an end?

I suggest that more people are exposed to poor air on the tubes then there are being exposed to the road traffic fumes on a daily basis, and those on the underground are alo more likely to be exposed for longer periods to those using the roads in the fashion that James Gallagher did for his "experiment"

The SMMT figures do not show actual true sales, i.e., cars that have been sold and are being used on the roads, they only show cars that have theoretically been sold, when in reality many of these have been registered and then within days or weeks, declared as SORN and placed into storage. These cars are NOT contributing to the clean air that I keep hearing so much about are they? In fact there is an argument to be made that they are adding to overall pollution levels as they have had to be made and shipped all around the world and then become stored and later sold as used cars with delivery miles on them.

The DVLA are aware of the number of new car registrations, they are also know what their drivetrains are, ie, petrol, diesel, HEV (predominantly petrol), PHEV, again petrol) and BEV. They will also be aware of how many of each type are also subsequently declared as SORN and their drivetrain types, as well as dates that they were first registered and when they were SORN and therefore can also tell how long that period was, how long the car has been with each new registered owner and also tell you who these keepers are, traders or private people. But they are not willing to provide such information, why do you think that might be??

A few pertinent facts-

EVs on average drive several percent more than ICE vehicles per year due to cheaper running costs etc.

December 2025s sales of EVs were much higher than Decmber 2024 sales as they were for the whole year. January 2026 EV sales were sluggish due to rush to declare in the 2025 year.

No car company can afford to make EVs or any car and not sell them to market with months else they will go out if business and we are seeing some European and US companies take massive financial hits as they have not been able to mass produce EVs economically, poor execution. Chinese and Korean mostly winning the BEV, PHEV and hybrid technical and financial race.

Edited 12 February12 Feb by lol-lol

I am used to crap Council Chargers in Scotland and stupid pricing and poor power output.. For handiness at a Farm Shop I used a 'evolt' charger 5 days ago and as far as i can see the Tariff is 55 pence a kWh. An ABB Charger and the CPS card or ElectroVerse should have worked but they did not, neither did the CPS oe ElectroVerse App. So i tapped a Credit Card. My Bank App showed £35 taken & that is fair enough. If 55 pence a kWh i got £16 of electricity and VAT. It shows still PENDING on my Credit card APP, and that is to SWARCO. The other charger i had used the day before a mile away was 70 Pence a kWh and the 50 kW CCS put out a max of 12 kW so to get the minimum charge of £5 i was there for 40 minutes. The next charger that was 6 miles away was going a max 17 kW but i only needed the £5 worth. Next chargers all gave 50-52kW and cost 61 pr 65 pence a kWh. All in the trip cost me as much or more than running a Petrol Car. A friend has gone from his Audi EV to a Kia Niro Mild Hybrid and is getting 65 mpg. He is a 20,000 mile a year Rep that just gets paid per mile but buys his own vehicles.

@lol-lol They are going out of the Business or changing the planned business model. The First Registering and the Partnering to get the Figures to save being penalised has caught up now with the kidology. As to Private EV Owners / Drivers home charging. Show us where they are doing higher mileages than when they had an ICE vehicle. Actually show us they do not also have an ICE vehicle.

12 minutes ago, Evolution13 said:

@lol-lol They are going out of the Business or changing the planned business model. The First Registering and the Partnering to get the Figures to save being penalised has caught up now with the kidology. As to Private EV Owners / Drivers home charging. Show us where they are doing higher mileages than when they had an ICE vehicle. Actually show us they do not also have an ICE vehicle.

Western manufacturers, perhaps with the exception of Dacia-Renault, appear to be chopping and changing, firstly appearing they were going big in to EVs and then realising they were not financial competing and losing out in the race for the EV segment and then mostly giving up. Cost them tens of billions in inefficient and loss making EV production. VW with its very poor EV software for example.

I don't know which households have a mixture of EVs and ICE, be interesting to see what that split is, household like us now with 3 EV and no ICE, next door just got a BYD Surf, no hope charging, other next door now got a wall box charger but not an EV but presumably changing one of the ICE for an EV fairly soon.

https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/news/366358/evs-are-officially-covering-more-miles-ice-cars#:~:text=That%20means%2C%20on%20average%2C%20EV,than%201.8%20million%20transactions%20annually.

^^^ 'Typical Drivers' So what is one of those? Thank you for the article. I am sure they must know how many of these EV,s are Business / Commercial and Private use and Cars / Taxis and Light Goods vehicles compared to Private Vehicles. They will know how many are Demonstrators and Courtesy cars from First Registration then after 3 months , 30,000 miles are more are then SOLD as used vehicles. PS. A typical new driver of a BEV might just head off for the 1st or 2nd charging to see the range of the vehicle./ That would be about 450 miles worth average...

Edited 12 February12 Feb by Evolution13

Seemingly there are around 8 million used car trades in the UK in a year. The Article is on data of 1.8 million vehicles. That can not be BEV,s as there are only around that many in total on the roads.

1 hour ago, Stonekeeper said:

Would that not be partly due to the need to get the registrations in before the end of 2025.

They cannot register them twice.

Yes but the same thing applied the previous year.

I.e a December rush followed by a January slump.

57 minutes ago, lol-lol said:

EVs on average drive several percent more than ICE vehicles per year due to cheaper running costs etc.

I don't see where or how you arrive at that deduction, in the main EV's are cheaper if you can always do your charging at home and you have one of those special tariffs, otherwise, if using public chargers to make the return journey, it is doubtful if the costs are any better. They are certainly not the case if you own the car and plan to replace it in 3 years time, as depreciation is so much bigger with EVs.

1 hour ago, lol-lol said:

December 2025s sales of EVs were much higher than Decmber 2024 sales as they were for the whole year. January 2026 EV sales were sluggish due to rush to declare in the 2025 year.

Again, I cannot see that happening; unless all the dealers are bonkers, they will of course be only too aware that the 2026 target for EVs is even bigger than it was for 2025, so if they register cars in December 2025, then they have just made the target in 2026 so much bigger and even harder to hit, given that they never hit it 2025.

1 hour ago, lol-lol said:

No car company can afford to make EVs or any car and not sell them to market with months else they will go out if business and we are seeing some European and US companies take massive financial hits as they have not been able to mass produce EVs economically, poor execution. Chinese and Korean mostly winning the BEV, PHEV and hybrid technical and financial race.

Are you aware of the huge number of new EV's from that sector of the market you claim are returned to the dealers with long lists of faults that the dealers cannot rectify due to the parts stock not being available and difficulty in even communicating with the cars due poor quality control of the cars and software bugs etc. There are cases of some cars developing faults and throwing errors up on their dashboards before the owners have even left the dealers' forecourts?

Some of these cars at the dealers have been there awaiting repairs long than they have been with the owners, so much for far Eastern manufacturers.

1 hour ago, Evolution13 said:

I am used to crap Council Chargers in Scotland and stupid pricing and poor power output.. For handiness at a Farm Shop I used a 'evolt' charger 5 days ago and as far as i can see the Tariff is 55 pence a kWh. An ABB Charger and the CPS card or ElectroVerse should have worked but they did not, neither did the CPS oe ElectroVerse App. So i tapped a Credit Card. My Bank App showed £35 taken & that is fair enough. If 55 pence a kWh i got £16 of electricity and VAT. It shows still PENDING on my Credit card APP, and that is to SWARCO. The other charger i had used the day before a mile away was 70 Pence a kWh and the 50 kW CCS put out a max of 12 kW so to get the minimum charge of £5 i was there for 40 minutes. The next charger that was 6 miles away was going a max 17 kW but i only needed the £5 worth. Next chargers all gave 50-52kW and cost 61 pr 65 pence a kWh. All in the trip cost me as much or more than running a Petrol Car. A friend has gone from his Audi EV to a Kia Niro Mild Hybrid and is getting 65 mpg. He is a 20,000 mile a year Rep that just gets paid per mile but buys his own vehicles.

I agree, if you are able to do your charging at home, on a low tarrif and get back again to recharge each day with always having enough in the battery to meet your requirements, and you're not (assuming you purchased a new car) looking to replace at 3 years of age, but keep it far longer so that depreciation does not bite you in the arse, or you have a car provided by your employer, then yes, I'd agree an EV could well be a no-brainer to have. Like I've always said, if it fits your lifestyle and and your pocket, then they are a wise choice. But the caveat there is that first you have to be able to have the ability to home charge in the first place; public charging will destroy any financial advantage.

Edited 12 February12 Feb by Graham Butcher

1 hour ago, lol-lol said:

December 2025s sales of EVs were much higher than Decmber 2024

31% Market share in December 2024, 32.2% in December 2025

Is that 'much higher'?

Not really for me.

I can see Motability getting more customers signing up to get EV,s when 'The Price is Right'. A Kia EV4 for £299, or a Toyota Urban or MINI Countryman EV for £0 Advance payment. Free Home Charger Installation & no VED or Insurance to pay. There will be those i expect that even without a home charger will go for what looks a great offer. Compared to the other Cheap or £0 Advance payment. Leap, Fiat etc etc.

26 minutes ago, Dieselgate said:

31% Market share in December 2024, 32.2% in December 2025

Is that 'much higher'? Not really for me.

Looking at all of 2024 and all of 2025, which of course includes Dec 2024 and 2025, shows the fuller picture.... (24% increase) and one in three cars for a December ae both pretty awesome IMO.

Yes short of the 28% target but lots of reasons for that such as the higher Government grant applying to EV versions that have to be ordered as is the case for the 2025 European CoTY Renault 5, the 4, the Minis built in Leipzig and the Nissan EV from NE England. These cars will be delivered in Q2 2026 ie few weeks away with nice "26" registrations and the stonking £3750 grant. If you were to accept a non + PLUS version I expect you would want more discount though Renault have not been giving much discount as they can sell every Renault 5 they can make such is the popularity. Hope the Merc CLA electric getting CoTY this year will boost its sales, spec is just fantastic but UK will not like mainland Europe which gets it sooner of course so affect on SMMT EV sales data will not be as good if we drove on the same road size as most of Europe !

---

UK new electric car (BEV) registrations grew significantly from 2024 to 2025, with 2025 seeing 473,348 registrations, an increase of over 91,000 units compared to 381,970 in 2024. BEV market share rose from 19.6% in 2024 to 23.4% in 2025.

SMMT EV Sales Comparison: 2024 vs. 2025

• Total BEV Registrations: 381,970 (2024) to 473,348 (2025).

• Market Share: 19.6% (2024) to 23.4% (2025).

Autocar

The new Mercedes CLA comes with a 484-mile EV option for...

Hyper-efficient saloon becomes UK's longest-range electric car, while hybrid promises diesel-style MPG

4 minutes ago, lol-lol said:

Renault have not been giving much discount as they can sell every Renault 5 they can make such is the popularity.

###DELIVERY POSSIBLE TO ANYWHERE IN THE UK###

IN STOCK & READY TO GO

CHOICE OF COLOURS

Edited 12 February12 Feb by Stonekeeper

I have seen more Alpine A290 EV,s on the road than Renualt 5 ev,s. I see plenty at dealerships. Just not on the road moving or parked up.