The climate scaremongers: Electric Vehicles, cutting edge madness for a suicidal generation
PAUL HOMEWOOD
IT IS chilling to think that we are now just four short years till the ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars takes effect, despite the fact that the country simply is not ready for it.
Sales of electric cars, excluding hybrids, are still stuck at less than 22 per cent for the year so far, up only slightly from last year’s figure of 19.6 per cent. The Government Zero Emission Mandate demands this number must rise to 28 per cent by the end of December, plainly impossible now. Car manufacturers who fail to meet their target must pay fines of £15,000 for every petrol/diesel they sell above their quota.
The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) reckoned that carmakers are already facing a bill of £6billion for their shortfall last year, and that could easily double this year. There are certain allowances some can claim but these are not significant. It seems that manufacturers will carry forward their liabilities in the hope that they can increase EV sales in the next year or two. This is a foolish strategy, which has been likened to a payday loan.
There is only one way companies can claw back these shortfalls and that is to simply stop making petrols and diesels long before 2030. Such a strategy would, of course, be hugely damaging financially. Either way, they are screwed!
The problem is the same one which I have been writing about for years – hardly anybody wants to buy an EV because they are simply not fit for purpose. This is particularly true for private buyers, who are voting with their feet – last year it is estimated that only about 10 per cent of cars bought by them were electric.
EVs are much more expensive to buy; they are also impractical for anything other than a city run around. Vauxhall, for instance, have just introduced the electric Frontera. To cut costs, the basic model has a tiny 44 kWh battery.
Although Vauxhall claim a range of 189 miles in normal driving conditions and a usable charge of between 20 per cent and 80 per cent, you would not even get 100 miles out of it. (Just to explain, car batteries are designed to charge up much more slowly once they reach 80 per cent charge in order to avoid battery damage. In practice, it could take hours to get from 80 per cent to 100 per cent. At the other end of the scale, nobody in their right mind would deliberately drive with just a few miles left ‘in the tank’).
The Government has reintroduced subsidies of up to £3,500 to persuade buyers, but this will have little effect. At the moment, don’t forget, EV drivers already receive a hidden subsidy of about £1,000 a year, because they don’t pay fuel duty.
Most EVs, about four out of five, are business and fleet cars, driven by extremely generous tax breaks. But leasing companies are nursing losses of hundreds of millions as a result of plunging second hand values. In turn, car makers are offering unaffordable discounts to keep up electric car sales. The SMMT estimated discounts cost the industry £4.5billion last year – equivalent to more than £10,000 per car.
They are, as I say, unaffordable, but the maths is undeniable. In round numbers, under the EV mandate, every electric car sold allows that manufacturer to sell three petrol/diesels, in turn avoiding a fine of £45,000 – 3 x £15,000. It makes more sense offering a discount of £10,000 for an electric car than paying the fine.
It is not just the UK motor industry which is facing ruin. In Germany, Ford have just axed 1,000 jobs at its Cologne plant because of low demand for EVs, while Porsche have also just announced a £4billion hit to their balance sheet, following its decision to indefinitely postpone the introduction of electric cars.
The EU’s plan to ban all petrol/diesels by 2035 has already been watered down after pressure from the mighty German car industry. It is looking increasingly likely that it will be diluted and probably delayed even further.
All gloom and doom? Not for our friends in China, who must be rubbing their hands in glee at Europe’s suicidal policies.
With the help of cheap labour, monopoly of battery production and components, cheap coal power and almost non-existent environmental standards, China can easily undercut European EV carmakers. Whereas we hold a sizeable technological lead for conventional vehicles, the switch to electric has created a level playing field where China’s cost advantage makes all the difference.
UK imports of cars from China in the first six months of this year are up 67 per cent on a monthly pro-rata basis compared with 2024. China’s share of total sales has risen from 5.1 per cent last year to 8 per cent so far this year. Most of these are electric.
Chinese brands such as BYD, Jaecoo and Polestar are now familiar sights on the road, despite hardly being heard of a few years ago and this is only the beginning. Britain’s biggest port operator, Associated British Ports, has unveiled plans for a new £500million car terminal near Southampton to cope with the anticipated flood of cars from China.
We are handing our motor industry over to China all in the pursuit of Net Zero.
This article (The climate scaremongers: Electric Vehicles, cutting edge madness for a suicidal generation) was created and published by Conservative Woman and is republished here under “Fair Use” with attribution to the author Paul Homewood
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