The net zero transition is really a big invest-to-save plan. Saving the planet is obviously the main goal, but there are purely financial savings too if you take the long view: we pay upfront in the next few decades for the infrastructure for lower carbon travel, heating and production, which saves us money over time because it’s cheaper to run. Electric vehicles (EVs) are where the big savings come from. A year’s petrol or diesel typically costs well over £1,000, but if you can charge an electric car at your home overnight the annual fuel cost can be under £150. Making the EV switch is a big job – we’ve got 32m cars to replace. But the turnover has recently gone up several gears, with EV sales outpacing all forecasts: they now account for one in five new car purchases. Interesting new research digs into how sensitive are drivers pondering the switch to the savings that come from moving from petrol to electric vehicles. Using data from California, it shows the obvious: EV sales respond both to electricity prices (falling as they rise) and to petrol prices (rising as pump prices increase). The interesting bit is that sales respond to petrol prices at around four to six times the rate of electricity prices. Why? Consumers are just less aware of electricity prices than petrol prices. I definitely am, having watched petrol pump prices rise by 40p a litre over the past year. So if you want a (small) silver lining to today’s catastrophic energy price surge, it’s that bonkers pump prices should encourage more people to buy electric vehicles while nuts electricity prices won’t put them off much. Torsten Bell is chief executive of the Resolution Foundation. Read more at resolutionfoundation.org