Vauxhall sells fully electric and hybrid electric model for same price

In the UK, the average list price difference in the market between an electric and petrol car is currently 31%. Vauxhall, the British brand in the Stellantis Group, offers its new Frontera in fully electric and hybrid electric versions for the same price of £23,495 (about RM133,300), claiming to be the first automaker to do so.

Bringing prices of electrified vehicles down is something which automakers are trying to do as quickly as possible to remove the argument that electrified vehicles, especially the fully electric ones, cost more than those with just combustion engines.

Of course, there are still other factors that make buyers hesitate, like availability of charging stations and range anxiety. The cost of replacing a battery is also of concern but prices keep coming down. In time, as volumes rise, the high cost of EV technologies will come down but when they will become as cheap to make is still uncertain.

In some countries, governments offer incentives like subsidies or, in the case of Malaysia, tax exemptions to lower the prices of EVs so that more people will buy them. However, even with the incentives, EVs remain expensive (compared to equivalent-sized combustion engine models) and still unable to go mainstream yet.

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