1million "plug in" vehicle registrations (uk)

[Mr Gus]

https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... cles-in-uk

"Last month, the UK reached the milestone of the millionth “plug-in” electric vehicle registration, although full battery-powered electric vehicles still only account for 17% of the market, according to the latest figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders"

When you look at that as 87% hybrid thats actually pretty damn sad, shows what tv advertising saturation can still achieve.

Whilst forced to go furniture shopping I noticed an all electric edition of top gear magazine, as i flicked through it the only vaguely normal vehicle that i recognised was the new vw retro camper thing. the rest being utter ponce wagons & designer wet dreams, ..car porn, nothing more.

reminded me why I hated top gear through the ages.

[Mart]

Hiya Gus, don't be too sad. The growth of BEV's is still strong.

Not sure what you meant by the 87% hybrid figure, was that a typo based on the 17% BEV, and you meant 83% hybrid? If so, then the article meant BEV's were 17% of all cars, not just PEV's.

Obviously it would be nice to see a faster transition, but BEV's are a bit expensive, and supply is short, and of course the non-Tesla fast charging network is somewhat unreliable. But growth is ok, and whilst PHEV's are better than ICEV's, it's noticeable that in the UK, and most countries, their sales (as a %age) is slowing falling. Also some of the Chinese PHEV's have pretty big batts (eg 40kWh), so decent BEV's if driven that way.

Here's a link to the latest SMMT report (for Sept):

Car Registrations

[Mr Gus]

Yeah, thanks for the correction mart, im still one eyed so "soft focus" ...but have always been a dumb-@ss regardless of vision.

Right now that emoji carries more meaning to the vision than anything else

[smegal]

I find this website a useful resource:

https://www.zap-map.com/ev-market-statistics/

[Mart]

I find this website a useful resource:

https://www.zap-map.com/ev-market-statistics/

That's a great site. I used their data in an e-mail conversation with Compare the Market back in late June to 'politely' suggest that their EV data was a crock of sh...ugar.

The news article (linked to CtM) suggested ridiculously low figures for current and future BEV's, suggested the total would reach 600k in 2030. This data was being used by trolls to show that BEV rollout was miniscule. I checked CtM's site via the article link and it was giving this dodgy data, so I sent them this:

Hiya. I've just been looking at an article from air quality news, titled "EV sales in the UK predicted to see 300% growth by 2030".

https://airqualitynews.com/2022/06/20/e ... h-by-2030/

It links to yourselves:

https://www.comparethemarket.com/car-in ... -electric/

But I can't make any sense of the numbers you've presented. For instance you seem to suggest that the number of BEV's on UK roads in 2021
(cumulative) was 151,751, but just the 2021 sales alone were 190,727, and the UK is now at ~500,000 BEV's. You go on to suggest that the total sales by 2030 will be 603,299, a figure we should reach this year.

This was their non-reply:

Hi Martyn,

Thank you for getting in touch.

As you detail below, there is huge growth at the moment in the EV market and we're looking to update this research regularly, in order for it to be reflective of the development across the sector. Please keep an eye out for more from us in this space.

So I tried again on the 28th June:

Hi, thanks for the reply, but just to let you know that the info on your page is being used by the 'anti-EV' crowd (on forums) to show that the take up of BEV's is tiny. The fact that your figure for cumulative BEV sales in the UK to the end of 2021 is less than the actual sales in 2021 alone, and your 2030 cumulative projection of ~600k sales, will be reached this year, makes the take up look small and pathetic, and undermines/understates the real shift massively.

So it's not about you updating the info, it's about you correcting it, as it does not reflect the development across the sector.

They haven't yet responded. But the page no longer has their 'excellent research' numbers on it! At least not that I can find, certainly not proudly presented as before.


We seem to be living in a very strange World, where conflicting facts and data exist?

[Oldgreybeard]

Sadly, "facts" are whatever anyone wants them to be now. I'd hazard a guess that there is more erroneous information around on the internet than there is true information, as there are so many with vested interests in misrepresenting information, plus there seems to be a cultural shift away from truth being seen as important. It seems few care about facts, or being told the truth, and are quite happy to exist in a world where misrepresentation and outright lies abound.

You only need to look at some recent events and news stories to see how rife lies and misrepresentation is, and how large numbers of people get taken in by it. Russia is an obvious example, but every nation on the planet seems to have some issues with honesty and the adverse impact of those that choose to lie or misrepresent reality. The recent case involving Infowars owner, Alex Jones, is a good example. For years he made a great deal of money (many tens of millions) by openly lying to millions of people, protected by the laws surrounding freedom of speech.

What does surprise me is that society just doesn't seem to care about lies and misrepresentation. It's as if it's just accepted, even encouraged. I'm not a fan of too much legislation, but do feel that there needs to be some way to reduce the ability of people and organisations to get away with repeatedly misrepresenting information.

[Mart]

Sadly, "facts" are whatever anyone wants them to be now. I'd hazard a guess that there is more erroneous information around on the internet than there is true information, as there are so many with vested interests in misrepresenting information, plus there seems to be a cultural shift away from truth being seen as important. It seems few care about facts, or being told the truth, and are quite happy to exist in a world where misrepresentation and outright lies abound.

You only need to look at some recent events and news stories to see how rife lies and misrepresentation is, and how large numbers of people get taken in by it. Russia is an obvious example, but every nation on the planet seems to have some issues with honesty and the adverse impact of those that choose to lie or misrepresent reality. The recent case involving Infowars owner, Alex Jones, is a good example. For years he made a great deal of money (many tens of millions) by openly lying to millions of people, protected by the laws surrounding freedom of speech.

What does surprise me is that society just doesn't seem to care about lies and misrepresentation. It's as if it's just accepted, even encouraged. I'm not a fan of too much legislation, but do feel that there needs to be some way to reduce the ability of people and organisations to get away with repeatedly misrepresenting information.

Hiya OGB, just to say, I was watching the news this week, and shouted upstairs to Wifey who was trying to fall asleep, that the (latest) ruling against Alex Jones and his lies that the Sandy Hook massacre was fake, had awarded the parents nearly $1bn in damages. Couldn't happen to a nicer guy. Hopefully now the idiots who believed him will stop harassing the parents, vandalising (and even urinating over) the headstones on the graves, and find something more useful to do.

[Oldgreybeard]

Hiya OGB, just to say, I was watching the news this week, and shouted upstairs to Wifey who was trying to fall asleep, that the (latest) ruling against Alex Jones and his lies that the Sandy Hook massacre was fake, had awarded the parents nearly $1bn in damages. Couldn't happen to a nicer guy. Hopefully now the idiots who believed him will stop harassing the parents, vandalising (and even urinating over) the headstones on the graves, and find something more useful to do.

Latest from his media outlets is that the damages awarded against him are another example of the "deep state" fabricating evidence . . .

Apparently, about 20% of the American population believe every word he says. Mind you, there are an awful lot of people here in the UK that believe every word Boris Johnson said, even though he openly admitted that he saw nothing wrong with telling lies, and felt that it was a key strategy to adopt for anyone to succeed.

Doesn't take much to convince large numbers of people that the colour black is really white. There are loads of people prepared to believe anything, even if it's incredibly implausible. We had some friends, when we were living in Scotland in the early 1990s, and she was very gullible, believed anything that was in the papers. At the time I had a BMW, with remote locking (still something of a novelty at the time) and one evening, when we'd popped around to pick them up to go somewhere, she commented about the car unlocking as we walked up to it. Before I had a chance to explain, her husband (knowing how gullible his wife was) jumped in and said that this was all part of BMW customer service, in that they trained their cars to recognise their owners and unlock as they walked up to them.

My wife was practically choking, trying not to laugh, but we kept the story going for ages. Everywhere we went this lady would tell people how clever my car was, in that it had been trained to recognise its owner. I think it took around three or four weeks until someone told her about the remote fob, and I had to admit that I'd been pressing the button on it when it was still in my pocket. This lady wasn't daft, by any stretch, but did tend to believe everything she was told or read, without question. There are probably a lot like her, that either just believe things without doubting their veracity, or believe things because they fit with their own preconceptions about the way the world works.

[AE-NMidlands]

This lady wasn't daft, by any stretch, but did tend to believe everything she was told or read, without question. There are probably a lot like her, that either just believe things without doubting their veracity, or believe things because they fit with their own preconceptions about the way the world works.

I wonder how much it is down to the trust they put in the source of the info? (and partly the quality of the people they mix with) If it's someone who has found you to be very well-informed over the years it was a slightly cruel practical joke.

It does open up the discussion of why a lot of (possibly right-wing) people are - or were - still so suspicious of RE though. I think that there is a deep political prejudice against anything radical, or criticism voiced by any slightly left-wing commentator. It's the only way I can explain the way some people have been blindly following (and even worshipping) the leaders of the government we have had for the last few years. (I think some even still believe that Brexit is a fabulous opportunity and deny that any price has been paid for it.)
A

[Oldgreybeard]

Trust in the source is an interesting idea, as that's largely down to the way an individual perceives it, and doesn't relate at all to whether the source is reliable and honest.

Just looking at the big media outlets, I'm disinclined to believe anything that's in The Mail, simply because I was part of a story by them many years ago, and about 95% of that story was made up and untrue. The reporter knew the facts, but chose to write a political piece that twisted or ignored the facts. I'm more inclined to believe what's in The Guardian, mostly because of their track record, although there are several journalists that work for, or have worked for, that outlet that I distrust to some degree.

My general approach now is to assume that all media outlets are lying unless there is enough corroborating evidence to show that they aren't. I suspect I'm in the minority, though. After all, millions still don't believe Johnson has done anything wrong, despite the evidence that he lied pretty much every day he was in office. Not sure how people square away placing trust in someone whilst knowing they are inherently dishonest.