Government must not drive away EV buyers

Transport secretary Mark Harper has warned the UK Government could use its trade remedies to levy tariffs on imports judged to have unfair advantages.

However, consumers benefit from wider choice and the lowering of entry prices to get into electric vehicles (EVs) and Harper wants as many carmakers involved in the new car market as possible but added “The important thing it’s a fair, competitive landscape”.

The cheapest Chinese EV sells for the equivalent of £11000 whereas the most basic Tesla in the US sells for about $40,000. Tesla’s own biggest plant is in Shanghai and in the eleven months to November last year it produced over 850,000 vehicles. The European Union launched an investigation last year into “unfair” trading practices but you don’t have to be Chinese to become cynical about this as both Volkswagen and Mercedes sell the majority of their cars in China and would be concerned if tariffs were imposed, China could retaliate with their own tariffs.

Furthermore, with the UK Government doing all it can to make drivers change to electric vehicles, to then attempt to block the ones that are most affordable would seem mad. These cars in British showrooms will put pressure on European manufacturers to reduce their prices to compete with petrol engine vehicles.

Vauxhall’s Managing Director, James Taylor published an open letter to the Prime Minister to do three things to energise the electric car market. He called for the VAT on electric cars to be halved to 10%. Secondly, to make prices for charging fairer
by reducing the 20% VAT charge to the 5% you pay at home, and thirdly “to remove the red tape that is slowing down the councils and companies trying to install even more chargers, even faster. Things like quicker planning and access to the grid. The sooner people see more chargers, the sooner they will be confident to switch”

It was hoped these measures would have been announced at the Budget but continued pressure such as this should have an effect at some time soon. On the safety front there is a move to get manufacturers to reverse the trend of touchscreens which have taken over such necessary functions as checking speed and adjusting mirrors. For example, the Mercedes EQS has a 56 inch “hyperscreen”. Matthew Avery Director of strategic development at Euro NCAP said “The overuse of touchscreens in an industry-wide problem, with almost every vehicle moving key controls on to central touchscreens, obliging drivers to take their eyes off the road and raising the risk of distraction crashes.

New Euro NCAP tests in2026 will encourage manufacturers to use separate, physical controls for basic functions in an intuitive manner, limiting eyes-off-road time and therefore promoting safer driving”.

More on this next week.