Wire Protection Makes The Electric Vehicle Revolution Safe

Date: 15/04/25

Wire protection sleeves, such as Firesleeve and Vidaflex from Sleeve It, are an essential element of electric vehicles. They not only protect the vehicle from costly and inconvenient breakdowns and failures, but also protect the driver and passengers from the danger of electrical fires in their vehicle.

We tend to think of electric vehicles as a modern idea, created to combat climate change, but they actually pre-date the petrol powered car by a number of years. Let’s take a look at the history of the electric car, how it’s grown in recent years, and how Sleeve It is working together with leading manufacturers to provide the wire protection they need.

The birth of the electric car

Electric cars were seen on our streets long before Carl Benz filed the patent for his ‘vehicle powered by a gas engine’ in 1886. The first electric cars emerged much earlier, with rudimentary versions invented as early as 1832, and the first production models introduced two years before Benz’s innovation.

In the late 1890s, both London and New York were served by futuristic fleets of electric taxis. The first hybrid electric car was soon followed, in 1901, invented by another famous name of the auto industry, Ferdinand Porche. Electric vehicles remained dominant for decades until Henry Ford’s Model T brought petrol power to the masses in 1914.

In the face of Ford’s affordable alternative, the electric car soon faded in popularity. There were brief sparks of interest, such as the one prompted by the electric Lunar Rover that flew on three missions to the moon, but they never lasted long. It took the threat of climate change to really bring electric vehicles back into the mainstream.

The EV revolution

In recent years, electric vehicles have received a significant boost, as governments around the world have looked for ways to reduce emissions in the drive for Net Zero. In the UK, the government is actually banning the sale of new petrol and diesel vehicles from 2030. This, combined with new models and a growing charging infrastructure, has seen electric vehicle sales surge.

According to Statista, the projected revenue from the UK EV market is expected to be £32.13bn in 2025, with the sector growing at 8.8% until 2029. The Electric Vehicle and Charging website, Zap-Map says that as of March 2025, there were 1,480,000 fully electric cars in the UK, up from just 396,945 at the end of 2021. This is remarkable growth considering that there were just 1 million electric cars worldwide as recently as 2018. 

In March 2025, new electric cars accounted for 19.4% of all UK cars sold, and if you add in hybrid vehicles, that number rises to an even more impressive 28.9% or roughly one in three cars sold in Britain.

Keeping EV drivers safe

Electric vehicles have an undeserved reputation for catching fire, mostly because such fires tend to make the headlines, whereas petrol vehicle fires don’t. In fact, thanks to wire protection products like Firesleeve and Vidaflex, electric vehicles are actually much safer than their petrol counterparts. 

Figures from The Energy Saving Trust show that there is just a 0.0012% chance of an electric vehicle catching fire, compared to 0.1% with a petrol model. Remarkably, there were only 511 fires caused by high-voltage car batteries worldwide between 2010 and 2024 – that’s just 36.5 per year in the whole world. This is indisputable proof of the effectiveness of the kind of wire protection products and fire sleeves you can get right now at Sleeve It.

The future of electric vehicles 

With the new administration in America walking back many of the incentives for electric vehicles, the outlook may be less certain than it was. However, few would deny that electric power is ultimately the future for cars everywhere. 

Here at Sleeve It, we look forward to working with the automotive industry, both here in the UK and around the world, to support the EV revolution. We’re proud to work with some of the industry’s most respected marques, from Rolls Royce to Ferrari, to deliver dependable wire protection for electric vehicles. To find out more about how Sleeve It wire protection products can support your industry too, get in touch with our team via sales@sleeveit.co.uk or call 01254 694733.

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