Car buyer demand for petrol and diesel bounces back as EVs took a walloping even

Demand for electric vehicles has gone into reverse with a growing share of car buyers reverting to petrol and diesel cars, says a new industry report.

The annual Ernst & Young (EY) Mobility Consumer Index has registered a fall in purchase momentum for EVs while buying intent for traditional combustion engine models has ‘bounced back’.

Most worrying for the Government and its intentions to stand by its 2030 ban on sales of new petrol and diesel cars is that the market survey was conducted well before reports emerged that Chancellor Rachel Reeves would levy a pay-per-mile tax on EVs – a move that the motor industry has said could be a killer blow for EV sales.

In the poll of 1,032 UK motorists intending to purchase a new car in the next 24 months, two in five (41 per cent) said their preference would be a model powered by a traditional internal combustion engine (ICE).

This is up from 36 per cent when the survey was carried out in 2024, and more than double the proportion of respondents intending to buy EVs (19 per cent).

The report concluded that if ‘EV uptake is still lagging behind legislation targets, more may need to be done to incentivise and accelerate demand among consumers’.

Demand for electric vehicles has gone into reverse with a growing share of car buyers reverting to petrol and diesel cars, says a new industry report 

The multinational professional services network said the results from its latest market report contrasts with last year’s findings, which highlighted a fall in ICE buying intent, with an increasing proportion of UK consumers (59 per cent) looking to cleaner and greener vehicles, which has now eased to just half.

According to the survey, which was conducted in September and October 2025, expensive upfront purchase costs was the top factor deterring respondents from opting for electrified vehicles, which includes EVs, plug-in hybrids (PHEV), conventional ‘self-charging’ hybrids and range extenders.

Two in five (41 per cent) cited high prices as the reason they would steer clear of electrified cars.

Meanwhile, limited range (36 per cent) and expensive battery replacement (30 per cent) were the next most prominent reasons among respondents for choosing not to go electric with their next vehicle purchase.

Other hurdles referenced by motorists include a lack of available charging stations (47 per cent), long charging wait times (45 per cent) and the expensive cost to access the public network of devices (40 per cent). 

The annual Ernst & Young (EY) Mobility Consumer Index has registered a fall in purchase momentum for EVs while buying intent for traditional combustion engine models has ‘bounced back’

Ministers will argue that the Chancellor’s Autumn Budget pledge to increase funding to the Electric Car Grant (ECG) to retain the price discount scheme – offering up to £3,750 off the RRP of sub-£37,000 EVs – to the end of the decade should help to overcome one of the biggest purchase hurdles. 

However, the announcement of the pay-per-mile eVED tax on electric vehicles in the last month’s statement is set to strangle demand for zero-emission cars.

The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has already estimated that the 3p-a-mile additional tax on EVs from 2028 will result in 440,000 fewer registrations of battery cars between now and 2030.

But while the Treasury says the downturn in appetite is likely to be less prominent – due to the extension of the ECG – and that the shortfall will be closer to 120,000 EVs, industry experts have described it as a hammer blow to electric car demand.

Car giant Ford said eVED ‘sends a confusing message’ to drivers at a time when the EV transition is stumbling.

‘Against a hugely challenging market, and compliance targets drifting out of reach, this is the wrong tax at the wrong time,’ a spokesperson for the manufacturer told us.

Matt Galvin, managing director of EV maker Polestar, said: ‘We have always been clear that EV drivers should contribute their fair share to road costs.

‘But [pay-per-mile tax] sends the wrong signal by penalising the very drivers who are accelerating the transition to clean transport. If this is one of the goals then a review of fuel duty which hasn’t changed since 2011, would also be welcome.’

The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said the introduction of pay per-mile EV tax will ‘reduce demand for the very vehicles manufacturers are compelled to sell’ and warned it will ‘reduce further the UK’s investment appeal just as it strives to attract new manufacturing operations given the Industrial Strategy’s ambition to boost vehicle output to 1.3million units by 2035’.

Registrations figures for November released by the SMMT show that sales of…