Bad news for electric car makers, at least in the UK.

Despite the British government's offering of a £5,000 off the top of the price of a new electric vehicle, sales of electric cars have slowed to a trickle, according to figures published by research charity the RAC Foundation late last week, reported British newspaper The Guardian.

During the second quarter of 2011, only 215 cars were purchased under the government's EV grant offering. This represents a precipitous drop since the first quarter of 2011, which saw 465 electric vehicles purchased under the program. Thus far, only 680 vehicles have been sold under the auspices of a grant program that hoped to see 2,500 purchased. Only £3.4 million of the £43 million in grant money has been used thus far. The money is available until the end of March of next year.

The Guardian reports that some environmental groups estimate that at least 1.7 million electric vehicles need to be on British roads by 2020 if Britain is to hit its emission reduction goals. (And another 6.6 million must be purchased by 2030.)

“The figures show the mountain we have to climb if the national car fleet of 28 million vehicles is to turn truly green,” Professor Stephen Glaister, director of the RAC Foundation, said in a statement. “Even with the grants, electric cars are still much more expensive than similar-sized petrol and diesel models.”

Supporters of the program say it's too early to worry: that auto sales usually drop off in the second quarter. Many say that in order to tempt consumers into purchasing electric vehicle, more employers and businesses need to install plug-in facilities.

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