News Archive
th September 2022 - new car registrations show that EV's are now above 14% of the new car marketplace.
1st September - MG4 demonstrators expected in the dealership showrooms this month.
16th June - MG announces it has suspended taking new ZSEV orders - lead times now 9 months approximately. Some orders placed late last year are starting to be delivered.
14th June - plug in car grant for EV's withdrawn by the government.
10th June - MG5 named best car for Dog Owners!
6th June - 4 new MG dealerships opened - 2 in Scotland, 1 in Lancaster and 1 in London. There are now 153 in total.
4th June - a new study published by OZEV regarding the life cycle analysis of greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles with a variety of powertrains show that all electric with battery power is the clear winner.
20th May - 15 of the 98 Tesla charging sites opened up to non Tesla drivers, charging 61p per kWh. There are 158 individual charging points included.
16th May - New MG Eastbourne dealership opened.
5th May - all EV deliveries have been impacted by global shortages of semiconductors and global logistic issues, not just MG. Many new models were shown at Fully Charged Live and interest is going up exponentially, leading to lead times commonly being quoted around a year.
30th March - a shipment of MG's including a lot of EV's is on it's way from China. Look out for new pictures of many happy people collecting their new ZSEV's.
20th March - EV sales continue to dominate the figures released by the SMMT. Both petrol and diesel continue to shrink while BEV are up more than 100% on last year. This would be more if global semiconductor shortages were not an issue.
16th March - Tesla announces they are preparing to share their UK chargers with non Tesla cars.
1st March - charge point connectors have now passed 50,000 according to latest Zap Map statistics. Shell's charging partnership with Waitrose: the first bank of Shell charge points has opened at Waitrose in Cirencester. A handy stop off point between the M4 and the M5. Up until recently, there was only 1 easily accessible rapid in Cirencester. This was reported last July: Up to 800 Shell electric vehicle (EV) charging points will be installed in as many as 100 Waitrose shops across the UK by 2025. Each site is expected to have six 22kW and two 50kW rapid charging points so customers can charge their vehicles while they shop.
24th February - MG teased us with a glimpse of a new MG4 hatchback, to be released towards the end of 2022, possibly a competitor with the VW ID4.
20th February - congratulations to our very own James Coates - he and Kate passed 25k subscribers on their EV James & Kate review YouTube Channel.
17th February - a brand new 6 strong charging hub has opened at the Swansea services on the M4.
12th February - new clusters of charge points are being announced every week on Social Media via Twitter and Instagram, and via the charging apps including Zap Map etc. Check them out to see where they are and make your charging easier.
9th February - we passed the milestone of 8,000 members on our Facebook Group. Now we are looking forward to reaching 10,000 by the summer.
4th February - the SMMT announced new car registrations in January were 27.5% up on 2021, with BEV and PHEV accounting for a massive 71.5% of the uplift. 20.4% of them has a plug. There are now more than 140 plug in car models available with 50 more coming this year.
1st February - tickets for this year's EV festival taking place at the British Motor Museum at Gaydon are now on sale from the British Motor Museum's website. Full details are on our Facebook Events page too.
12th January - Shell Recharge announce the opening of their new electric hub in Fulham, SW6.
6th January - BEV's were 25% of new car registrations in December 2021 - in comparison with 16.5% in December 2020. The MGZS was the 10th best selling BEV in 2021.
29th December - Continuing the recent trend, British production of battery electric, plug-in hybrid and hybrid cars took a record share of production, accounting for around a third (32.7%) of all cars made in November, and more than a quarter (25.5%) over the year-to-date. Battery electric vehicle output, in particular, was up in November by 52.9% to 10,359 units, hitting a new high of 13.7% of all production, more than double the level a year ago
18th December - the OLEV grant for installation of a home charge point will come to an end for "single unit properties" in April 2022. Your charge point will need to be installed by 31st March, so probably booked in February, as there is often a lead time of 5 or 6 weeks. The scheme will remain open to home owners who live in flats and rented accommodation.
17th December - Osprey opened a new EV charging hub in Purley Cross Retail Park, Croydon. 4 x 75 kWh and 2 x 175 kWh points, manufactured by Tritium. Osprey recently came second in Zap Maps review of Charge Point operators.
17th December - the Plug in Car Grant was reduced to £1,500 from £2,500, and the price ceiling was lowered to £32,000. This takes the Trophy and Trophy Connect out of the government incentive equation until the list price is lowered.
16th December - Dobbies' Garden Centres announce a partnership with Gridserve to deliver Destination Hubs (not rapid) EV charging facilities at 30 of their retail sites across the UK. Click here for list of locations. Although this sounds good, how much can you charge your car while picking up a few items for your garden in around 30 mins. Not many miles in that sort of time.
14th December - the MG5 LR makes it into the list of 10 most practical EV's published by Zap Map's website.
14th December - New MGZSEV Mk2 crowned Driving Electric's EV of the Year 2022.
1st December - 21,726 more BEV's hit our roads - new car market share stands at 18.8% - more than double 2020. (New diesel sales 5,939, down 62% from 2020, to 5.1%. (YTD 2021 figures: 163,022, up from 86,291 2020)
24th November - detailed in a post published by Tesla recently, a pilot project will see 10 Supercharger stations in the Netherlands become accessible for other EVs. Drivers of these cars need to use the Tesla smartphone app (and make sure it is version 4.2.3 or higher). They then tap on the new ‘Charge Your Non-Tesla’ option and add a payment method to get started.
7th November - portable car chargers are making waves in the media - they will be able to add 20 miles of range in just over 30 minutes and can be stored in the boot of the car or at home. Usable in all weather conditions.
5th November - a major study of 2,000 UK drivers has reported that 35% of drivers said that as a result of the recent fuel shortages, they would be more likely to go EV next time they purchase a car.
1st November - pure battery EV car sales are up 86% year on year. October 21 v October 20 shows a 73% increase. 16,155 more are now on our roads! 15.2% market share, up from 6.6%. Hybrid growth has stalled. BEV is rocketing.
31st October - While the European car market decreased 25% year on year in September, the total number of new plug in registrations increased 42% to 227,238 which is one of the best monthly results ever. The market share is now 23%, including 15% BEVs and 8%PHEVs.
7th October - major update expected about new models coming via YouTube.
6th October - great article here combatting persistent rumours about the grid crumbling under pressure. It isn't going to.
27th September - we held a social meetup at the Gridserve Electric Forecourt just outside Braintree. We had a great turnout of ZSEV's including 9 #teamblue, + 1 new MG5SWLR. Fantastic charging facility, with great relaxation areas and a good range of snacks and drinks.
23rd September - Gridserve reported that the entire network of almost 300 old Ecotricity chargers at more than 150 locations on motorways and IKEA stores was to be replaced by September, enabling any type of EV to charge with contactless payment options, and doubling the number of simultaneous charging sessions by offering dual charging from single chargers. However, the date has slipped a bit and some MSA's including South Mimms and Clacket Lane still have no working charge points. We have asked them to prioritise this as there are so few charge points available on the M25 north of London. There is a map on their website showing available charge points here.
18th September - the first ever London to Brighton EV rally took place. Mark Garnett of the MGEVOC drove his #teamred MGZSEV and commented that all his fellow EV drivers were delightful and enthusiastic. He enjoyed the whole thing apart from the very early start. It will hopefully be an annual event and much bigger in July next year.
17th September - Osprey EV charging announces a £75 million investment in 150 new charging hubs with 1,500 chargepoints - 150 kW and upwards. Located at food and drink outlets to enable EV drivers to use their facilities while grabbing a quick charge.
10th September - Royal Dutch Shell has announced an ambition to install 50,000 on-street EV charging points across the UK by the end of 2025, via Ubitricity. The move is part of a wider effort to provide a third of the network needed to hit national climate change targets and bring more charging availability to the millions of EV drivers across the UK. Ubitricity, founded in Germany, is a leading provider of on-street charging points for electric vehicles and operates over 3,600 chargers across the UK. The company provides on-street EV chargers that are integrated into existing bollards or streetlights.
9th September - OFGEM announce supporting the Gas and Electricity Markets Authority, devised a new strategy to ensure that the infrastructure and technology are in place for the rapidly multiplying number of EVs on the road.
With an expected 14 million EVs by 2030, Ofgem’s plan includes: ensuring the energy network is prepared for EV uptake: Ofgem will ensure network capacity is in place to support the rollout of electric vehicles, with billions more in network investment expected to follow as part of the next network price control. Investment is already taking place, with £300 million approved by Ofgem in May 2021, half of which will be used to develop EV infrastructure, which will make it easier to connect to the grid and support the development and uptake of smart and vehicle-to-grid charging.
1st September - Autotrader publishes it's list of top 10 EV's 2021 and the MGZSEV is right up there!
31st August - interesting article published here about real world ranges, at motorway speed, of several EV's including the MGZS.
23rd August - new page loaded on the website - click here for our Driving Efficiency Guide.
10th August - first of our members has reported they have picked up their long range MG5's. 250 miles range now possible, perhaps even more...
9th August - Guy Martin appeared on Channel 4 (the World's Fastest Electric Car) and talks about a very unusual journey in 24 hours to John O'Groats in a converted VW Beetle - and how it would be cheaper in a diesel car. The following morning he gets a pile of comments on all the EV owners groups about how unrealistic his journey was, and how little planning was put into it, and the fact that he mainly selected the most expensive chargers and could have done it for half the price. Classic misinformation re costs, although positive view of the instant torque.
7th August - Approximately 400 people attended the EV Festival at Gaydon and the rain held off until 3 pm! Many marques were represented including MG - 19 ZSEV and 5 MG5, 27 Tesla, 2 Polestar, 8 Jaguar iPace, 6 Minis, 5 BMW i3, 5 Renault Zoe, 4 VW, several Kia, a few Nissan Leafs, 2 Skoda Enyaq, 1 Honda E, and 1 Peugeot 2008.
5th August - the SMMT reports that July sales of fully electric cars are up 117% Year on Year in comparison with 2020, while diesel car sales totals have dropped 31%.
1st August - the updated MGZSEV is expected to arrive in November with a bigger battery and minor body tweaks.
20th July - the longer range MG5 with 61.1 kWh battery announced (250 miles +) - available in the next few weeks. Can charge up to 80% in 40 mins from a 100 kWh charge point.
17th June - the police announce they are trialling Tesla Model 3's as response cars and the Times publishes an in depth article about why now is the time to buy an EV, with a very positive "plug" for the Ford Mustang Mach E. They even mention the fact that Charge Points are now treble the number of petrol stations. (We told them that!)
12th June - MG recently scooped two honours in Auto Trader new car awards - the ZSEV beat the Dacia Duster and Kia Sportage to take Best Value New Car, and Best Car for Dog Owners, ahead of the Dacia and Toyota RAV4. The ZS was also a finalist in New Car of the Year.
9th June - Zap Map releases an app upgrade that supports Apple Car Play.
8th June - our new MGEVOC polo shirts and hoodies are now available to order.
4th June - there are now officially more than a quarter of a million BEV's on UK roads.
3rd June - Gridserve buy out Dale Vince of Ecotricity and announce immediate improvements to the MSA charging network. 17 MSA's have already been upgraded.
2nd June - the North and South West are the regions that have seen the biggest increases in EV adoption, 293% and 237% respectively. The South West was the slowest in 2019, but now has the highest rate of EV's per 100,000 people in the whole of the country. The lowest percentage uptake is London with only a 44% uptake. (Stats from article by Gian Matteo Sacchetti in WhichEV.)
1st June - the BBC published an article entitled "Why electric cars will take over sooner than you think".
19th May - SAIC recorded 50,000 EV sales in April - which includes MGEV's. Up 432% year on year. Global EV sales for April were up 249%, with Europe reaching 15% market share.
17th May - a 236 bay EV charging hub is to be installed at Brent Cross Shopping Centre in North London by Franklin Energy. It will take 5 years - first phase 50 22 kW AC chargers in the multi storey car park and two 350 kWh in the western car park.
8th May - Following on from their April announcement, Osprey has installed its first Shell Recharge EV charge point at Shell Hovefield service station. They are expecting to increase their numbers from the current over 100 on Shell forecourts, to 200 by the end of 2021.
5th May - EV sales figures for April published by the SMMT - massive increase year on year for pure electric, and all plug in variants. ICE figures continue to decrease.
2nd May - Journalist Nicholas Hellen has an article in the Sunday Times regarding smart EV charging, including case studies and the benefits of charging when the National Grid has surplus renewable electricity.
1st May - Germany announce large lithium deposits found. Apparently enough for 400 million EV's.
30th April - Rugby Moto MSA opens new range of 12 x 350 kW Tritium Electric Highway/Gridserve joint venture charge points that work!
15th April - Washington State announces a ban on gas cars by 2030 - the first US state to do so.
12th April - Shell announced plans to install 5,000 rapid and ultra rapid EV charge points on their forecourt, supermarkets and other locations around the UK by 2025.
8th April - if SUV's were a country, they would be the 7th biggest in the world for climate emissions. MGZSEV = SUV with zero emissions.
7th April - EV sales increase March 20 - 21 by 88%. YTD the figure is 74%.
28th March - there are now 119 battery electric and hybrid car models available in the UK - of which 44 are full BEV. In 2020, the commercial fleet market for sales of EV was much stronger that the private car market.
26th March - 1st tidal powered electric vehicle charge point goes live on the island of Yell in the Shetlands.
10th March - 3 new Minstergate MG dealers are opening in York, Hessle, and Scarborough - part of MG's plans to increase their network to 130 dealers this year, having increased by 28 over the past year. MG have beefed up their management team since the end of 2020: former MG Rover director, and head of operations for Richmond Motor Group, Guy Pigounakis joined them in December along with new marketing director David Pugh.
1st March - our Facebook group has been targeted by hundreds of fake account requests. There has been a cull which has lead to lots of accounts being deleted. Several members have been muted or removed for offensive comments and spam advertising posts.
26th February - new charge points now available on the A1 north bound just beyond Baldock services. Other McDonalds locations now advertising new EV charge points available too.
23rd February - London to Brighton EV rally announced to take place on Sunday18th July. Entry is open at different price points starting at £50. The MGEVOC will be there.
20th February - LIDL are aiming to install 350 Pod Points at their supermarkets by 2022 - at a price of 23p per kWh. They have 100 in use already.
12th February - "Update Information" page with info about the BMS débacle updated with advice and comments.
11th February - Shell announce their plan to install 500,000 charge points globally by 2025, www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/industry-news/shell-pledges-massive-expansion-ev-charging-network
10th February - there will be 75 different EV models available this year. Check out Fully Charged Show's episode. There were less than a handful a few years ago.
5th February - Award-winning Premier Taxis was named GreenFleet Private Hire/Taxi Company of the year thanks to its EV initiative after it began operating electric taxis in 2015. Their 5 new all-electric MG5's replace Toyota Auris Hybrids on the Premier fleet and will be used across the Lancashire firm’s region, as well as airport transfers where the large luggage capacity comes in handy.
1st February - £20 million of extra funding for charge points announced by Grant Shapps
26th January - Cleevely Mobile EV servicing has started a four day trip to Scotland to service multiple EV's on their owners' drivers
25th January - Clean Technica article published about average UK drivers' mileage and the likelihood of 79% of them only needing to charge once a week, or even just once a fortnight.
24th January - Shell announced their plan to acquire Ubitricity - the UK's largest charging network
23rd January - "Air Quality News" article published about the effect of EV's, and new clean air quality zones being announced.
20th January - USA's new President Joe Biden's Inauguration takes place, heavily protected to ensure outside interference. One of his first actions is to rejoin the Paris Climate Accord.
19th January - Guardian article published about the development of EV batteries that will charge in 5 minutes
18th January - very positive article about EV sales in the UK by Auto Express. They have rather changed their tune since an article last year which was negative. "MG sales must rank as the success story of the year"
16th January - full page article by Adam Vaughan about the rise of electric cars published in the New Scientist
15th January - new BMS software update released which should fix the low range/long period to equalise issue
14th January - MG5 roof bar fiasco continues.... are they usable or not?
10th January - MGZSEV announced as second highest EV model sales in India.
9th January - there are now 22 car manufacturers selling EV's in the UK. Notable is the fact that Toyota is not on the list. MG sold a total of 18,415 cars (not all EV's) in 2020 in comparison with 13,075 in 2019. Similar figures to Fiat and more than Porsche!
8th January - announcement that only 2 car marques increased their sales volumes in 2020, MG and Tesla. MG was up 40% on 2019. 2021 should be even better if the e versions of the MG3 and MGE-motion appear on the market.
7th January - the SMMT publish new car registrations for 2020. EV sales are up massively, while overall figures are down. EV's are now over 10% of new car sales. SMMT forecast for BEV 2020 was 67,000. In fact sales reached 108,000.
6th January - WhichEV give MG5 Best Value EV 2020 award
3rd January - MG wins the award for Company Car and medium EV Car of the Year for the 2nd year running
27th December - many new MG5's being delivered all round the UK to their proud new owners with their new green flash number plates.
18th December - charge point numbers have increased by 777 in the last four weeks.
17th December - Battery EV sales will reach 90k this year - nearly tripling last year's figures.
16th December - Air pollution and exhaust fumes recognised in relation to the death of a beautiful young 9 year old girl in London. This should hasten the take up of EV's.
14th December - Cleevely Motors announced mobile EV servicing business opening in January 2021. Have your car serviced at your work place or on your drive way at home.
12th December - MG Announcement.... Electric version of MG3 coming out in 2021 - there will be a huge market for this.
6th December - the Sunday Times announced that 9.1% of new car registrations are EV - they forgot to mention this is a five fold increase over 2019.
6th December - MGZSEV's are flocking to Braintree to charge up at Gridserve's new electric forecourt. See pictures on Twitter and Instagram.
3rd December - Instavolt announced partnership with KFC - installing their charge points at 450 drive through's and locations across the UK.
2nd December - sometime during tomorrow we will hit 5,000 members on our Facebook MGEVOC Group. (Confirmed at 8.55 am on 3rd December!) An amazing achievement considering the club was founded in May 2019 (after the car was announced), and the MGZSEV only started being delivered October 2019 in small quantities, before ramping up in November and December.
20th November - article in the Sunday Times about the surge of AA/RAC calls owing to flat bed rescue needed by EV drivers met my derision from members of the MGEVOC. 300 a year is the estimate, against 800,000 people running out of petrol.
17th November - 30 Electric MG's will be converted the EV-converted MGB by RBW EV Classic Cars
12th November - MG5 review by Robert Llewellyn https://insideevs.com/reviews/454038/fully-charged-first-drive-mg5-ev/
6th November - new glossary page started
30th October - "Britain’s fastest-growing car brand and rapidly expanding EV marque is marking its best-ever month in the UK, having racked up 3,668 sales in September 2020 – an incredible increase of 169% compared with the same month in 2019. With car sales across the UK down by a third year-on-year, MG is also the only mainstream brand to be forging ahead with growth – its astonishing September result sees the brand’s sales up by 52.1% year-on-year at 14,228 cars, with almost a third of the volume attributed to the zero-emissions MG ZS EV.
The company also broke its annual sales record in September with the 13,076th MG of 2020 – an MG ZS EV bought by 30 year-old Londoner Luke Walker – taking the brand over its 2019 sales total with more than a quarter of the year left to go.
The incredible growth comes at the same time as MG launches two all-new models that are destined to boost its performance further – the unique All New MG5 EV and the brand’s first PHEV, the MG HS Plug-in, both of which are available to order now. Daniel Gregorious, Head of Sales & Marketing at MG Motor UK said “September was a staggeringly good month for MG in the UK. Firstly, we achieved our biggest ever sales month. In fact, our September result was almost 1,000 sales higher than our previous record month, March 2020."
27th October - annual market share of EV's has more than doubled since 2019 - it is now over 8%.
26th October - the Geniepoint total fix rollout is now complete.
6th October - EVie award finalists in 18 categories announced here. Across the various categories, they include businesses like Gridserve and Engenie, Cleevely EV, Ovo, Tonik, Instavolt and the Mayor of London. The (virtual) awards ceremony will take place on 3rd November.
5th October - SMMT new car sales figures for September and year to date have been released. Battery and Hybrid vehicles are now more than 25% of the market place - compared with less than 10% last year. 21,903 BEV's sold in September, 66,611 year to date - which includes a three month lockdown period when dealerships could not open.
28th September - several dealers now have their MG5 demonstrators and are able to offer test drives. See our MG5 page here.
24th September - news from the across the pond for a change - California has voted to ban ICE cars from 2035, and the US Drive Electric Week kicks off today - mainly virtual this year - it's 10th anniversary.
23rd September - 4,000 members and counting - in 82 different countries - led by UK, Netherlands, Norway, Thailand and India.
18th September - our MGEVOC Facebook Group has reached 3,900 members. We are now heading towards 4,000 and approaching 500 on Twitter!
17th September - in the USA, an area in California as big as Wales is burning, Colorado and Utah are also on fire. Air quality is atrocious. Tens of thousands have lost their homes. 5 hurricanes are on their way to the southern Bay Area. Still the climate deniers refuse to believe the evidence.
15th September - Zero Carbon World set a new record for driving from John O'Groates to Lands End - they completed the trip using 1 hour, 32 minutes and 32 seconds for charging - at only four locations. The whole 855 mile trip took 15 hours and 32 minutes in a Tesla Model 3. They beat the previous record set in 2015. In fact they cut the previous time in half!
11th September - Gridserve unveiled their partnerships for their electric forecourts - you will be able to buy a cup of Costa Coffee, use the Post Office, W.H. Smith, Booths and Gourmade. The opening date is sometime in November.
7th September - the inaugural World EV day takes place on 9th September. Where will you be driving to then?
World EV Day is a global movement, a day of celebration of emobility, and a day to shift the transition to sustainable transport with consumer, business and policy outcomes.
In its inaugural year, 2020, World EV Day is a largely social media led campaign to engage consumers around the sustainability benefits of EVs.
4th September - DPD reaches its goal of 10% electric fleet 5 months early - it now has 500 electric vehicles delivering parcels around the UK. The service has added, in only 7 months, over 700 electric vehicles to its other 130 EVs on the road. So far this year, DPD has delivered close to 5 million emissions-free parcels, saving over 2 million kilograms of CO2. The firm estimates that, on its current zero-emissions trajectory, it will deliver well over 10 million parcels on its clean, green fleet by the end of 2020.
2nd September - James has just been driving the new MG5. It's the first estate EV in the UK and he is pleased to say it's lovely. It's really well refined and has fantastic range.
26th August - Amazon has announced it will build a third wind farm in Ardderroo, County Galway, Ireland which will double its green energy capacity in the country and support their data centres. The three wind farms will add 220 MW of energy to the Irish grid. It is expected to be online by 2022, with 27 turbines.
25th August - Greene King (living up to their name) will install EV Charge Points at all of its suitable pubs. Raw Charging and Drive Energi are installing them and they will be PAYG with contactless payment. First one debuted at the Churchill in Royal Wootton Bassett, powered by solar, earlier this month.
24th August - Exxon Mobil is booted off the Dow after nearly a century - oil stocks are plummeting - the writing is firmly on the wall. Only one oil major still left, and that's Chevron.
22nd August - the solar powered electric forecourt being constructed by Gridserve at Braintree (their first of several planned) is due to open to the public in the Autumn. We will need pictures of MGZSEV's charging there!
20th August - the SMMT have forecast that EV sales in 2020 will equal 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017 combined.
Europe is the beacon of EV sales in 2020 with 57% growth for H1, in a vehicle market which declined by 37%. France leads with 9.1%, followed by UK with 7.7%. Germany posted 7.6%, Spain 3.2%.
19th August - EDF energy announce a new tariff - click here - half priced electricity for those with an EV who want to charge at 8p per kWh. (Octopus beware - other companies are waking up to this important market sector that is growing exponentially.) They are also talking about EV leasing deals - is that a first for an electricity supplier?
18th August - a north London bus garage is set to become the largest V2G (vehicle to grid) trial site. The electric buses will be providing energy when not in use, becoming a virtual power station. The initial trial will involve 28 buses capable of returning 1 megawatt of energy to the grid.
17th August - Hyundai has just achieved a milestone that the rest of manufacturers, including MG, can only dream of. For the first time ever, the Kona has reached a range of 620 miles on a single charge. Three identical cars were tested on a circuit in Germany, travelling at an average 30 miles per hour to replicate urban driving. Hyundai are expecting to sell 1 million EV's globally by 2025.
12th August - the Government announced an additional £2.5 million in funding for public on street ev charging infrastructure, claiming it will pay for 1,000 extra charging points installed in residential areas.