This paper develops a system dynamics model of the UK take-up of electric vehicles over the next 40 years. The model extends previous work by Struben andSterman(2008) to allow analysis of the UK market. The impact on uptake and CO2 emissions of factors such as subsidies, range, chargepoint
availability,emissionratesandarevenuepreservingtaxareconsidered.Weshowthatsubsidieshave
little impactontake-upunderatraditionalbusinessasusualcase.However,whenweintroducea
conditionalmarketingscenario,theyplayanimportantroleintippingthemarketintoasuccessful
trajectory.Thesensitivityoftheresultstoassumptionsonwordofmouth,averagevehiclelifeand
emissionsratesareexploredandwefindthatchangingthesecanresultinagreaterimpactontake-up
and emissionsthanpolicyorvehicleattributefactors.Ourresultshaveimportantpolicyimplications.