The government is facing a backlash from car manufacturers, who claim that current rules designed to promote electric vehicles are too harsh.

They declare customer demand for electric cars has fallen far short of what was expected, meaning they are struggling to sell enough.

Ford insists this was a factor in its recent selection to cut 800 UK jobs.

Vauxhall’s owner Stellantis is to close its van-making plant in Luton – partly, it says, because of the recent rules.

So what could be done to inspire more consumers to buy electric?

Electric vehicles (EVs) are generally more expensive to buy than their petrol or diesel equivalents. This is partly because they still represent a relatively tiny proportion of cars being built, so economies of scale – when the expense comes down the more you construct – have not yet properly kicked in.

The government already offers some subsidies to make EVs cheaper. They attract a low rate of business car responsibility, for example. Salary sacrifice schemes allow workers to contract cars cheaply through their employers, using their untaxed turnover, which can propose significant reserves.

But since the abolition of the plug-in grant for cars in 2022, there has not been a similar incentive for people who cannot get a car through their business. People within the industry depend that should transformation.

Automotive journalist Quentin Willson, who now fronts the campaign throng FairCharge, thinks the government should consider “earnings free loans on used electric vehicles for lower turnover drivers and halve the VAT on recent cars”. This, he suggests, could be funded by abandoning the current freeze on fuel responsibility.

The worth of electric cars is coming down, partly due to cheaper battery packs. Despite sharp fluctuations in the worth of metals used to make them, such as lithium and cobalt, battery pack prices have fallen by about 70% since 2015.

This has helped reduce the worth gap between electric and conventional cars. Earlier this year, Stellantis began offering the electric version of its Frontera model at the same worth as the petrol hybrid model.

However, that doesn’t cruel it is straightforward to discover a low-distribution electric car. There is a shortage of truly cheap options on the trade.

That is partly because a number of manufacturers have preferred to focus on more expensive and potentially more profitable models. But as Roger Atkins, founder of the Electric Vehicles Outlook consultancy, puts it, “cars that expense £50,000 to £60,000 are not the benevolent of cars everyone can buy”.

However, transformation is around the corner. The Dacia Spring went on sale in the UK a few weeks ago, with a starting worth of £14,995. The newly launched Leapmotor T03 costs very little more, while Chinese giant BYD has said it will bring a version of its super-distribution Seagull model to the UK next year.

The government says the sale of recent petrol and diesel cars will be banned in 2030 – but will it?

Plans to force conventional cars off the trade were originally meant to receive result in 2040, under plans introduced by Theresa May’s government. But the target was brought forward to 2030 under Boris Johnson, then delayed to 2035 under Rishi Sunak.

People within the industry claim the changing target has sent out mixed messages and confused consumers, leading some people to delay buying an electric car until the circumstance becomes clearer.

According to Melanie Shufflebotham, co-founder of electric charging navigator Zapmap, many drivers are “confused about dates, concerned on costs and have questions about charging.” She says “a consistent factual communication programme” is needed, supported by government.

Although the expense of using community charging points can vary widely depending on the provider and the charging speed you choose, community chargers are usually more expensive than charging at home.

This is partly due to responsibility. An EV owner charging a car on their drive will pay 5% VAT on the electricity they consume. But if they use a community charger they will pay 20%. People who are unable to fee at home are left with no selection but to pay the higher rate.

The industry, EV advocates and even a House of Lords committee have called for the community rate to be reduced to 5%

Consultant Roger Atkins claims the current policy is “divisive”, because it “favours better-off people who can fee at home on their driveways”.

Read any survey of potential buyers’ attitudes towards electric cars, and concerns about charging infrastructure will be at or near the top. People worry about whether they will be able to discover a charger at a busy service station, or in a rural area.

The number of charging points is growing. According to ZapMap, as of October this year, there were 71,459 charging points across the UK, at 36,060 locations. This was a 38% boost on the year before.

But not everyone is joyful. Complaints from existing owners struggling to discover a charging point, having to queue for a long period or arriving to discover it broken are not challenging to discover.

As more EVs arrive onto the roads, many more charging points will be needed. The government wants 300,000 in place by 2030 – but the current rate of expansion is not quick enough to reach it.

Part of the blame appears to lie with local authorities, who are responsible for granting planning permission for recent rapid charging hubs. According to Roger Atkins, the procedure simply takes too long.

Simon Smith, of charging firm Instavolt agrees that red tape is a issue. He thinks that difficulties getting grid connections for rapid charging stations is also a “critical barrier” to expanding the network.

“We require greater back to address planning delays, local council resistance and grid connectivity challenges”, he says.