How many electric cars are there in the UK?
For the latest North East news and updates subscribe to the free ChronicleLive newsletter here Invalid Email Something went wrong, please try again later. Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice  Nissan's billion-pound investment in electric vehicle (EV) production in Sunderland is part of a growing trend away from the internal combustion engine. It is also a strong endorsement of car manufacturing in the north east of England and a step on the country's roadmap, as suggested by the Committee for Climate Change (CCC), towards ensuring all new vehicles are electrically powered by 2035 at the latest. But the UK still has a long way to go. The total number of EVs  also known as Ultra Low Emission Vehicles (ULEVs)  on the road at the end of 2020 was just shy of 432,000, according to the Department for Transport. This figure includes:  All-electric EVs  powered solely by an electric battery  Plug-in hybrids  can switch between running on a small electric battery or fossil fuels  Hybrids  as above, but recharges while driving  Fuel cell vehicles  powered by electricity generated onboard via a fuel, such as hydrogen  A decade ago, EV numbers in the UK were below 9,000, meaning the total has increased by 4,799% in the past ten years. The current number is still small, however, compared with the 31.6 million petrol and diesel cars on the road at the end of last year  representing 96.6% of the total. Achieving the CCC's target will require not only greater uptake of EVs, but the infrastructure to build the batteries and charging points required. It is also worth noting that EVs are not the "silver bullet" when it comes to achieving the UK government's legally binding target of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, according to a House of Commons Library briefing paper. While they do reduce point-of-use emissions and local air quality, EVs are not net-zero when considering particulate emissions from road, tyre and brake wear. Ethical and environmental concerns have also been raised about the mining of rare elements, such as lithium and cobalt, that are used to make EV batteries.