The Times UK writes, the boss of Stellantis attacked the UK govt’s “terrible” zero emission vehicle mandate
Our Take, With Doug Sheridan
Our Take, With Doug Sheridan
The Times UK writes, the boss of Stellantis attacked the UK govt’s “terrible” zero emission vehicle mandate
The Times UK writes, the boss of Stellantis attacked the UK govt’s “terrible” zero emission vehicle mandate, claiming it takes no account of how far the 22% target of new EVs to be sold this year did not match public demand.
Carlos Tavares expressed his concerns in meetings with Mark Harper, the UK transport secretary. He also said the mandate was taking no account of the hundreds of millions of pounds his company was investing in making electric vans and passenger vehicles at its plants in theujikuului UK.
Tavares, 65, is the first industry boss to speak out so damningly about the zero emission vehicle mandate, which was introduced this year, setting targets for the percentage of EVs that manufacturers must sell in the UK and raising the prospect of fines of £15,000 for every car short of the target.
Tavares said Stellantis was committed to Britain because of the govt’s pro-decarbonisation policies, but added that imposing the mandate on carmakers was “a terrible thing for the UK.”
He indicated carmakers could turn their backs on the country because they would be hit twice—first by having to sell more EVd, which at the present stage of the evolution of the vehicles they cannot make profitably... and second by the potential for fines if they fall short of the target.
He said the “natural demand” for EVs in Britain was at about 11%. Although recent industry sales figures showed that 15% of registrations were battery electric, the figure is skewed by those taking advantage of company car tax breaks, while the demand from private motorists is in single-digit percentages.
Tavares said the zero emission vehicle mandate should be more flexible and should take account of companies such as Stellantis that are on the green agenda by making EVs in Britain and that are helping the UK’s trade balance by exporting much of their production.
“Otherwise what is the benefit to me to be manufacturing in the UK?” he said. “The ZEV mandate promotes the self-destruction of the industry. I am not going to sell cars at a loss. If the UK is sincere about having manufacturing activity in the UK and protecting it, then something must change.”
“I want to be better than the Chinese and I am working for that,” he said, “but if you break my legs and don’t let me work toward that, I cannot help you.”
Our Take 1: While it's nice to see auto execs begin to push back on heavy-handed efforts by politicians to mandate a shift to EVs, we've little compassion for them at this point.
Our Take 2: The fact is, auto companies were happy to go along and support the oppressive measures to push inferior EVs onto consumers as long as they figured gov't subsidies would fill their company coffers by doing so. Now that they realize EV mandates represent an existential threat to *them*, they've spoken up.
Our Take 3: We hope legacy automakers survive; but if they don't, it'll be their own fault for failing to push back earlier and against terrible policy.
Can any nation actually govern itself, when it comes to energy and economic development?
It reminds me of the DEI actions. All ready to make the big flourish of ‘look how progressive we are’ and then realizing too late this won’t work out.