Motor Industry Demands Subsidies for EVs, as Sales Stagnate
By Paul Homewood
More bad news for the EV rollout:
Britain’s car industry has urged the government to dish out tax breaks or other incentives to encourage people to buy electric vehicles (EVs), amid fears that consumer enthusiasm is on the wane.
The government will ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2030, but has wound back incentives for buyers – just as motorists have started to fret more about how much EVs cost and whether there is enough charging infrastructure.
Mike Hawes, chief executive of the British car industry’s Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, said EV makers had now made all the early, easier gains, and needed more public support to keep the 2030 target in sight.
Volkswagen’s managing director has warned the sale of electric vehicles is ‘stagnating’ as a poll revealed just 2 per cent of drivers would buy one in the near future.
Alex Smith warned there are currently few incentives to buy EVs.
He claimed sales are in ‘stagnation’ with EVs still ‘relatively expensive’ compared to petrol and diesel cars, adding: ‘It’s true to say that with the retail price of an electric car, you will find a premium.’
It came as a poll of 2,375 UK motorists found that just 2 per cent would buy an EV right now.
The survey, carried out for industry body the Society for Motor Manufactures and Traders found more than half are not planning to buy one until 2026 or later.
The figures led to growing calls for more support for private buyers to switch to EVs ahead of the planned ban on new petrol and diesel car sales from 2030.
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And things are no better in Germany:
Volkswagen AG is cutting temporary workers at its main electric-vehicle factory in Germany because of waning orders for its EVs in Europe.
The manufacturer plans to let go nearly 300 people at the Zwickau plant when their contracts expire in October, according to people familiar with the matter. The fate of around 2,000 additional temporary staff remains uncertain, the people said, declining to be named because a final decision hasn’t been made yet.
Volkswagen is having a tough time selling enough mostly made-in-Germany electric cars to challenge Tesla Inc.’s global dominance. Lackluster economic growth as well as higher energy, living and borrowing costs in Europe have weighed on demand for its ID fleet of EVs.
The company hired around 2,700 temporary workers at the Zwickau facility near the Czech border to meet expected surging EV demand. But orders from corporate clients — which account for around 70% of the IDs built at the plant — have been plummeting since a federal subsidy for battery-powered company vehicles expired this month, one of the people said.
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When will the motor industry and government get the message that the vast majority of drivers don’t want the useless things?
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NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT 
Buy Chinese! End of our car industry!
You cannot buck a real market !!!
Government by decree to meet a false target just so the Pig Dictator could get his leg over .We are beyond Clownworld
Tories now managing tractor production just like the Soviets.
Reality and the market cannot be bucked for long before the government will run out of other people’s money.
ERM anyone?
Nobody wants a useless and dangerous EV when they can have a much cheaper and much safer ICE car. We need a sensible government that will get rid of NutZero and all that follows from it.
Bring back Liz Truss as it seems that she realises it is a bad idea. Another reason why the Fascists had her removed. Just think, if she had stayed mortgage rates would have soared to 5% or over……oh, wait….
Demanding subsidies worked out fine for the unreliables industry, not so well for the taxpayers. So does the motor industry think it’s alright to put out the begging bowl too?
Idiotic demanding subsidies for EVs- What the industry should be doing is fighting back against the politicians’ attacks on normal petrol and diesel vehicles i.e. what the market actually needs and wants.
Quite. But history records that the manufacturers were down with the project of sawing off the branch they were sitting on.
People don’t want the less practical electric cars. The industry should be concentrating on what the market actually wants, NOT on what politicians want to impose.
Hmm, / Huh, Stuff British & Euro Manuf’rs and buy CHEAP CHINESE – because our stupid leaders are telling us to buy something “against the Grain” AND having SUPPORTED many of our Home -grown Industries over the DECADES, only to find them either TURN on us by following a (the) Gravy train, or by being Bought over my International Concerns which is NOT interested in our predicaments. .. … Could say so much more. Wholly agree with Simon & Phillip Bratby above.
The most dismal thing about this is this or the next government might actually give them the subsidies.
Remember that the current plan is to levy taxes on sales below quota. The idea is to kill the car market entirely.
My idea is that new car sales should come with a quarter interest in the cheapest Chinese golf cart which can be sold or SORNed and parked in a field, Chinese style. It will be cheaper than the tax, and would demonstrate the absurdity of the policy.
“You would have to pay me to buy an electric car”. About 90% agree with him. So much for a free market and democracy.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/09/19/youd-have-to-pay-me-to-buy-an-electric-car/
Yes, I will buy an EV, but only at gunpoint though first I would check that the gun was loaded!
Net Zero, EVs, swindmills and solar are starting to look a lot like the other c=scams the poliutical class have sold us.
Membership of the EU was hugely valuable yet cost us nbext to nothing of our democracy and freedim, they said – oh yeh?!
Unlimited immigration made us much better off, they said. Tell that to a building worker or taxi driver, a bar tender or anyone elkse on less than about tripple average wage. Renewable energy would be cheaper they said, but they fail to count the subsidies, feed-in tarrifs or then cost of dismantling these large, chemical full structures.
Buying a Chinese car is not just buying a Chines car – Nota Bene
forwarded this to my friend who immeiately sent this link claim UK sale up 20% in 23. anyone with thoughts on where the disconnect is?
https://www.zap-map.com/ev-stats/ev-market