April has been a very unusual month for manufacturers and suppliers of raw materials, as the effects of sweeping changes in tariffs for many major markets have had major consequential effects on global trade in ways that are still yet to have been fully felt.

However, despite a number of reasons for people to be somewhat cautious when exporting, buying or selling something as complex as an electric vehicle, the most recent Electric Car Count shows a remarkable appetite for EVs in the market.

This soaring demand for EVs is even more remarkable given the overall decline in the UK car market as a result of supply chain disruptions and tariffs that affect the car market even more than most market sectors.

The data is fascinating, but it is only as helpful as the way in which it is interpreted. With that in mind, here are some of the lessons suppliers, manufacturers, and dealers can learn from the data.

There Is A Serious Desire For Electric Cars

The biggest, most critical and most positive conclusion is that the demand for EVs is substantial, significant and shows no sign of going away anytime soon.

During a month where new petrol car sales dropped below 30 per cent, nearly two-thirds of new cars sold (63.9 per cent) had some form of electric power.

The highest proportion of these were conventional hybrid cars, which use an electric engine alongside a standard petrol one (32.3 per cent), but plug-in hybrids were twice as popular as diesel cars and battery-electric cars took a fifth of the market for themselves.

Perhaps most remarkably, despite a 14.3 per cent drop in the market following a rather adulterated March surge, BEV registrations continued to grow. This highlights the resilience of the market and reveals perhaps just how potent the customer hunger for EVs truly is.

Customers Are Listening To Their Wallets

Ultimately, the data that electric cars are highly desired by British drivers is not terribly surprising, and part of the reason why this desire is finally translating to sales is that the upfront cost is no longer significantly higher for EVs compared to petrol and diesel models.

It has been known for years that drivers are interested in making the change, particularly as cars such as the Nissan Leaf proved the principle and created the ripple that has since become a tidal wave.

However, concerns with range, availability of charging infrastructure and cost gave a lot of people pause, even if there were clear benefits to running an EV even in these early stages.

Long-range EVs exist with even more astonishing models coming from companies such as BYD, Renault and VW, charging stations at home and on the move are more plentiful, more reliable and much faster than before, and even the cost is starting to come down significantly.

This final part is a credit to raw material suppliers developing higher capacity batteries which through clever design and manufacturing techniques rely on less rare and expensive metals than before.

As running costs for petrol and diesel cars increase, EVs are getting cheaper to buy and this means that their already low running costs are maximised.

Quentin Wilson of FairCharge has suggested that this highlights the priorities of the British motorist despite a lot of noise and complaints about net zero and climate that have received widespread circulation.

Ultimately, drivers want cars that are cheap to run, reliable, safe and enjoyable to drive, and as more people buy and use EVs as daily drivers, more people are convinced that they are the ideal option for their garage.

EVs Are More Important Than Ever For Industry

The industry transition to EVs has been a difficult challenge because of the requirements of long-haul, heavy-duty vehicles, but one of the most remarkable aspects of the data is that despite the van market as a whole falling, electric van sales doubled compared to the previous year.

Businesses initially responded to the EV revolution with caution, but the cost savings are such that the benefits can no longer be ignored.

Even during a period of financial uncertainty, businesses are choosing electric vehicles to be their driving force, and are already beginning to reap the rewards.

As petrol and diesel cars continue to fall in popularity, EVs and particularly battery electric vehicles will only increase further.

Policies At Home And Abroad Will Be Key

A lot of the major impacts of tariff changes will not be felt until May and beyond, so it will remain to be seen what happens when it comes to sales of electronics and EVs.

In the UK, certain aspects of the 2030 petrol and diesel car ban have been changed based on concerns that the market would not be ready by the time the ban is supposed to come into force, but these figures and the momentum they imply could lead to a rethink to the rethink.