By Paul Homewood
h/t Ian Magness
The UK car industry has pleaded with the chancellor to help get the transition to electric vehicles (EVs) back on track when he delivers his budget next week, accusing the government of creating an own goal.
The Society for Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said it was clear that the decision to delay the ban on the sale of new cars powered by petrol and diesel to 2035, announced by Rishi Sunak in September last year, had backfired.
The industry had been targeting a 2030 deadline before the government’s U-turn, on cost grounds, and warned at the time that the move would damage investment and prove a backwards step in efforts to combat climate change.
The SMMT said on Friday that while the UK electric vehicle market remained the second-largest in Europe by volume, sales were lagging levels that had been expected before the government’s delay.
It reported that private EV uptake was 19% down year on year in 2023 after the end of consumer incentives.
A survey for the body showed that almost half of would-be EV buyers now planned to wait until after 2030 to switch – compared with one in 10 last year.
The up-front cost was the main barrier, the SMMT said.
What is the point of the SMMT? It clearly does not represent the interests of motor manufacturers or drivers. Instead it continually obsesses about Net Zero.
EVs are already heavily subsidised. The fact EV drivers don’t have to pay fuel duty already hands than a subsidy of £1000 or so. Other subsidies to business and fleet buyers cost taxpayers billions more. Why then should taxpayers fork out yet more?
It must surely be clear to a blind man that drivers simply don’t want useless electric cars. And the idea that delaying the ban until 2035 has discouraged people from buying them now shows just how out of touch with the real world the SMMT is.
It is time the SMMT woke up to the reality of the harm being done by EV mandates and ICE bans, and started campaigning for the right of drivers to buy the cars they want.
via NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT
March 1, 2024 at 04:03AM
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