That's the sound coming from Whitehall as civil servants congratulate each other on their ability to cut the prices of new battery electric cars – BEVs – with reductions of around 20% now being reported as manufacturers struggle to sell cars that the public isn't persuaded it wants. I don't wish to claim too much by way of clairvoyance, but I did foresee this 12 months ago. They are still pricey though.
That such policies might distort the market seemed quite possible. By way of evidence, the head of Ford Europe has just said that the company plans to divert petrol cars deliveries from the UK to the continent. The FT quotes him: "We can’t push EVs into the market against demand” he said. "We are not going to sell EVs at huge losses just to buy compliance. The only alternative is to take our shipments of [engine]vehicles to the UK down and sell these vehicles somewhere else.”
Do you suppose the smart architects of the policy saw this coming?
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