While other parts of the world have eased plans to transition to zero-emissions vehicles in the coming years amid slower-than-expected growth in demand, that hasn’t been the case in the UK. There, even though some government officials have pushed for softened rules, the country is sticking to its ZEV goal for now. However, there’s one big problem with that plan – EV sales stalled out last year, prompting automakers to call for more incentives that would entice shoppers to make the switch to electric power. Now, months later, a Blue Oval executive is echoing that sentiment when it comes to Ford EV models.
“We need incentives to drive demand in the consumer market,” Ford of Britain managing director Lisa Brankin told Autocar, adding that “we are not seeing customer demand for EVs” without them. Currently, the UK is aiming to achieve a 22 percent EV mix in 2024, a figure that’s set to rise to 80 percent in 2030, but Brankin doesn’t believe that it can reach that point without robust incentives designed to stimulate private demand for Ford EV models and others. She also added that the first budget proposal from new UK chancellor Rachel Reeves – set to arrive late this month – provides the perfect opportunity to introduce such incentives, pointing to robust demand in the commercial market for EVs stemming from fleet incentives.
Earlier this year, Ford ditched plans to go all-electric across its entire passenger vehicle lineup by 2030 amid waning demand, and will continue to offer gas and hybrid models as long as it possibly can. Though the automaker has long supported ZEV mandates such as the one being implemented in the UK, it admitted that its own plan to do so was “unrealistic,” and later noted that it may stop selling ICE models in the UK altogether to avoid paying fines that are part of that same mandate.
In the meantime, Ford is working on a low-cost EV platform set to underpin multiple future models slated for the U.S., but it may also utilize something similar – or the very same architecture – in Europe as well.
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The WEF went ALL in during and after COVID. They are killing the western auto industry, gaming industry, and Hollywood is dying, just to name a few of the industries that their agenda is hurting. John Kerry said a bit too much in a recent video.
Most of the people I know who have been buying ford’s all their lives are no longer buying them as ford doesn’t make anything that appeals to them. Ford need to stop making engines with stupid wet belts. Ford is committing business suicide