Ford calls on Labour to put off electric car targets

Ford has urged the new Labour government in the UK to put an end to the ambitious sales targets set for electric cars and the harsh penalties that will be imposed on manufacturers who fail to meet them. The American auto giant, which was once the dominant leader in the British motor industry but has seen its sales plummet during the switch to electric vehicles says that ministers should reconsider the mandate for zero-emission vehicles (ZEV), after Rishi sunak upset the market last year with his U turn on a ban on petrol cars.

Registrations of electric vehicles have stagnated since Sunak decided to postpone from 2030 to 2035, the end of sales of new petrol and Diesel cars. Ford wants the chancellor’s help with a reduction in the VAT on new electric cars, and the cost of public charging. Lisa Brankin said that the industry would struggle to meet its targets without customer incentives.

The ZEV mandate stipulates that 22 percent of the production of automobiles must be electric vehicles. The manufacturers can be fined £15,000 per car that does not meet the quota. The industry has sold 18% of electric cars so far. Few in the industry think that 28 percent will be reached next year.

Brankin stated, “Where incentives are available we know that it drives the market.” The sales of electric cars for private consumers who do not receive any sweeteners, grants or other incentives are less than 10%. Fleet and business-tobusiness sales are at 36%. She said that retail customers account for 40% of the market, so it is important to shift our focus.

Brankin, on the other hand, believes that the government could go further with the ZEV mandate, and the complex vehicle emissions trading scheme, where manufacturers can buy or sell “credits”, depending on whether or not they meet the targets. We would like to ask the government not to implement the fines next year, but rather take a one-year break. “We believe that a good plan would consist of putting the customer incentives into place to give the markets momentum, and then starting afresh [with the ZEV targets] in 2026.”

In its manifesto, Labour reversed Sunak’s intervention and reinstated the ban of the sale of new vehicles with internal combustion engine from 2030.

Brankin acknowledged that the 2030 goal would be difficult, but he said it would be counterproductive to fine manufacturers in 2025. We have become casual when it comes to electrification. We talk about it like it’s an evolution. But it is a revolution for the customers. Most people don’t particularly like change.”

She said that the industry had already done the easy part, and had managed to attract the “enthusiastic”, one-sixth of new car buyers who were eager to make the switch to electric. “Now comes the difficult part. People who wanted to make the switch have already done it. We now face a gap in how we reach and motivate the rest of the car-buying population to purchase electric.

“Incentives give people a reason for consideration and we can only reach our targets if we create momentum.”

Ford has fallen from grace in the British automobile industry. Five decades of dominance on the market are over. The UK stopped producing cars more than 20 year ago, and vans were moved to eastern Europe and Turkey ten years earlier. Ford, already a pale shell of its former selves, has cut 10,000 British jobs in the last five years. The losses are most acutely felt by its UK-based research and technical capability.

Ford’s Fiesta and Focus, the two most popular models, sold more than 200,000 cars a year during Labour’s last tenure. Ford’s market share has fallen to less than 6% after the controversial decision it made to discontinue the Fiesta – the bestselling car ever sold on a British forecourt.

It was one of the first legacy manufacturers to commit to electric vehicles, but then it became the most aggressive. It announced that it would be fully-electric in Europe by 2030. Since then, it has backed off, resetting the 2030 target at 80 percent of sales, and announced plans to manufacture new non-zero emission plug-in hybrids in its Valencia factory, Spain. Last month, Ford introduced the all-electric Explorer to its range.

Ford’s sales of electric vehicles were less than 3% of the total in earlier years. This is changing. The Mustang Mach E sports car has already arrived, and last month the Ford Explorer was introduced. This is the family-all-electric “SUV cross-over”, the estate of our days. Next month, Ford Capri will arrive, another electric crossover. It has angered some critics because it doesn’t look like the Halewood built Capri from the 1970s.

Ford’s game-changing move comes with the launch of Puma Gen-E at the beginning of this year. This electric version of their bestselling Puma is the zero-emission successor to the Fiesta. The price is expected to be below £30,000. This is a high price for a small car, but it’s a price range that has few electric cars.

Brankin stated that Rachel Reeves must reset the market for electric cars and provide incentives for people to buy them. This is a difficult task for a chancellor, especially when she’s taking away winter fuel allowances for pensioners. We share the bold ambition of the government on net zero, and now is time for bold actions.