Some UK drivers don't avoid EVs because they dislike them. What holds most back is uncertainty — around cost, safety, and whether switching to an EV actually makes sense. According to a report from the Energy & Climate Intelligence Unit, a quarter of the EV-related articles published in UK national newspapers within a six-month timeline contained at least one misleading claim.
Those claims often suggested that demand for EVs was stalling, that electric cars were inherently more expensive, or even that they were unusually prone to fires – despite evidence showing EVs were 80 times less likely to catch fire than petrol vehicles.
This atmosphere of confusion and misinformation may help explain why the UK government has recently launched a fresh campaign across TV, radio, and other digital media, promoting electric vehicles and the grants available to drivers. The campaign, dubbed "Get that electric feeling," started on Monday.
“The campaign highlights how drivers can save up to £3,750 off the cost of a new electric vehicle (EV) thanks to the government’s Electric Car Grant, alongside up to £1,400 on annual fuel and maintenance costs, and access to over 87,000 charge points across the UK,” the Department for Transport said in a press release.
David Adubiina
The government also said it will roll out an additional 100,000 new local public chargers over the coming years and introduce funding and planning reforms to make it easier and cheaper for residents without private driveways to install home chargers, enabling them to charge for as little as 2p per mile.
Despite this, the adoption of EVs in the UK still faces certain roadblocks. Yes, charging infrastructure has improved in the last few years, but it still feels uneven. Rural and cut-off areas remain harder to serve, which makes longer journeys more difficult than routine drives.
Only 15% of public charge points in England are located in rural areas, according to Ratio EV, an EV charging solutions company. That extra mental load rarely enters the sales pitch, but drivers feel it every time a route hinges on one working charger. Cost is another sticking point. Public charging prices per kilowatt can be high, meaning longer trips can sometimes cost more than driving a petrol vehicle.
None of this cancels out the progress EVs have been making. EVs still suit a growing number of households, and industry voices are right to say confidence matters if interest is going to turn into purchases. But confidence grows faster when everyday constraints get acknowledged, not glossed over.
The government has run EV campaigns before, from “Go Ultra Low” to today’s effort, and each has nudged adoption forward. This one may do the same. Its success, though, will probably depend less on slogans and more on whether access broadens and ownership starts to feel predictable for people whose lives don’t fit the ideal EV profile.
For now, electric cars work brilliantly for most, awkwardly for others, and expensively for a few. Bridging that gap remains the real challenge.
Muhammad Adamu
