SMMT chief executive, Mike Hawes, suggested that the solution to accelerating the UK’s EV uptake and thus helping manufacturers fulfil tough ZEV mandate quotas is to introduce more incentives for consumers, describing how the industry “[has] the stick, we just need the carrot”.
With the general election looming and the polls predicting a large majority for the Labour Party, Hawes referred to the Labour manifesto, saying “potential governments are listening. Labour published a sector strategy for automotive in October last year, which contains a lot of what the industry wants.”
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Still, Hawes called for stability and “a coalition of industry and government”, reiterating the SMMT’s appeals for a cut on VAT for public charging and potentially even that of private EV sales in order to boost uptake, the latter by as much as 300,000 EVs over the next three years.
In terms of the used market, Hawes told Auto Express that “it’s important that [battery state of health] is standardised because you need to reassure consumers that there’s consistency”.
Davino agreed, chiming that Stellantis has “[its] own standard, but we need a market standard that is then valuable for the customer. This goes beyond the technology; it’s also the confidence that we give to consumers about the usage and ownership of electric vehicles that [they] are safe, everything works and that you have no risk in owning and driving one, either if it’s new or it’s used.”
The SMMT says investment in the UK manufacturing sector could result in £50 billion of growth, suggesting that “smart” policies from the next government could see 17 million drivers switch to EVs by 2035.
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