10:05 am, October 18, 2024
A full transition to EVs by 2030 is ‘not going to happen’ according to Robert Forrester, who says new plans to increase electric adoption are a ‘blunt instrument’.
The Vertu boss yesterday (Oct 17) appeared on BBC Radio 4 to discuss the current state of the EV market, following a new report by economic think tank, the Resolution Foundation.
That report suggested slapping higher taxes on petrol and diesel cars to try and drive EV sales but Forrester is adamant that is not the way to go.
He says that the measure would ‘hit the poorest in society’ and would be ‘totally regressive’.
Speaking about the Resolution Foundation report, Forrester said: ‘I think its a very blunt instrument and I don’t agree with quite a lot in the Resolution report.
‘If you want to incentivise or drive more battery electric vehicle sales, and actually we’ve been quite successful in that in the last six months, you’ve got to have a sensible policy and this isn’t it.
‘It’s a very blunt instrument to try and increase petrol and diesel prices to force people into electric vehicles. The way of doing it, I think, is to save a number of critical problems – like infrastructure on charging.
‘How do people in social housing, people who haven’t got a drive, get access to affordable charging?
‘Their proposal that we get the same VAT rate at home as we see at public charging points is a very good idea, a very sensible idea and it should absolutely be implemented by the government.
‘But this idea that we should continue to force people into electric vehicles, rather than incentivising them, I just think is the completely wrong way of doing it.
‘The poorest in society, who have cars, have older used cars, they have petrol and diesel cars and if you put fuel duty up, you’re hitting them. You’re not hitting the nice middle class people who can afford lovely saloons with a nice drive and home charging. It’s totally regressive.’
Forrester is a long-standing critic of the Government’s ZEV mandate, which sets targets on how many EVs manufacturers need to sell.
The figure this year stands at 22% but the Vertu boss says uptake is still well short of where it needs to be, largely due to cost issues.
He added: ‘We are not seeing mass adoption and there is a significant affordability issue.
‘Despite the discounting there is still an affordability gap. The average price of a new car we sell has gone up by £4,000 in three years and battery electric vehicles are a big part of that.
‘This idea that consumers are going to save money buying an electric vehicle, I just do not see at the moment how that is going the work. The manufacturers can’t discount any more than they are doing.
‘I think we’ve got to accept that the pace of change to electric vehicles is going to be dependant on making them affordable and that is going to need more technological change. We are not going to get there by 2030.’
