10:56 am, November 28, 2025
Stellantis’s UK boss says that the per mile charge on EVs announced in this week’s Budget has left the carmaker ‘pushing uphill’.
Eurig Druce, group managing director of Stellantis UK, says that a charge on EV usage was ‘inevitable’ at some stage but admitted that the industry ‘could have done without it’ in the current climate.
Speaking exclusively to Car Dealer, the 46-year-old said that the move would likely reduce demand, potentially causing further challenges when it comes to meeting ZEV mandate targets.
He added that he will now be working with colleagues from other brands to make sure that carmakers don’t end up ‘supplementing the coffers’ with money from fines, incurred for failing to meet quotas.
Druce told Car Dealer’s James Baggott: ‘It was inevitable that at some point we have to start charging for the use of electric cars.
‘Frankly, we could have done without it in this period of timing, but our focus now needs to move to convincing the customer still that choosing an electric car is still more attractive than choosing a petrol car.
‘When you look at total cost of ownership, that charge for use is at half the level of what it would be for a petrol car but we didn’t really need the added complication.
‘In terms of what impact it has in on the market, I guess we could go OBR forecast. They might know better than me and they’re talking about an impact over the decision period of 400,000 cars, some of that supplemented by more money coming into the electric car grant, and the changes on the taxation bands.
‘That poses a question about what happens to the ZEV mandate because the decision has been taken to reduce demand, and I’m not seeing demand naturally at the level of the ZEV mandate.
‘I really have to work with industry colleagues to push uphill now to try and make sure that we don’t supplement the coffers with fines.’
ECOS plans were ‘lose-lose’
Despite his concerns, Druce did see some small reasons for positivity within Rachel Reeves’ announcement on Wednesday.
The government shelved much-criticised plans to end Employee Car Ownership Schemes (ECOS), which had been due to come into effect on October 6, 2026.
The move has now been delayed until April 2030 with a further transition period after that, which Labour says will give the sector more time to prepare and adapt.
Druce welcomed the news said that ditching the schemes within the original timeframe would have been a ‘lose-lose’ situation.
He also expressed positivity over changes to the expensive car supplement, which will see the threshold for EVs hiked from £40,000 to £50,000.
‘We felt quite strongly about ECOS,’ he told Car Dealer. ‘That was a very much a lose-lose proposal so it’s good to see that pushed back to 2030 with that transition into 2032 as well, that’s positive.
‘Then other positives, if we stay on that theme, is to see that expensive car supplement on the move from £40 to £50,000 on electric cars.
‘That’s great but then quite challenging in terms of actions on charging for the use of electric cars, just at the point when we need to encourage more customers into those cars.
‘We have to be balanced, of course, and say there’s more money as well in terms of the electric car grant, but these packages together, it feels like with that electric car use charge, we’re going to have to push uphill a little bit when we really could have done with maybe having a little bit more momentum behind us first.’
