Ford UK Once Again Says EV Incentives Needed To Boost Sales

Back in October, Ford UK managing director Lisa Brankin asked the British government to cut its added tax on EVs in half and boost incentives for all-electric vehicles in an effort to conjure up consumer demand, which has been lagging behind expected levels of growth. This is particularly notable as the UK has an ambitious zero-emissions goal of phasing out the sale of new ICE models by 2030 that is thus far proving challenging for automakers to reach, and just last week, The Blue Oval issued a call to action across the entire region of Europe, asking for robust EV incentives, too. Now, Ford UK continues to beat that same drum as it seeks to ramp up its EV sales in that country.

According to BBC News, Ford UK is once again calling on government officials to roll out robust EV incentives in an effort to sway consumers to purchase those types of vehicles, to the point where Brankin stated that without consumer demand for those products, the country’s zero-emissions mandate “just doesn’t work.” “The one thing that we really need is government-backed incentives to urgently boost the uptake of electric vehicles,” Brankin said, noting that Ford UK has invested heavily in EVs as of late. “So we kind of need to make it work,” she added.

Given this shift in consumer demand, Ford previously announced that it will continue to sell ICE, hybrid, and all-electric vehicles in Europe for the foreseeable future, though it may not be able to do so in the UK if its mandate holds.

Meanwhile, massive hits to its passenger vehicle business in Europe recently prompted Ford to announce that it will eliminate 4,000 jobs in that region, with most of those cuts occurring in Germany and the UK – which it hopes will come mostly from voluntary retirements and not outright layoffs. The Blue Oval is also making changes to Ford Explorer EV and Capri production that will result in the addition of more short-time days at the Cologne Electric Vehicle Center in Germany starting in Q1 2025. As Ford Authority recently reported, the automaker had already scaled back production of both of those EV crossovers for the remainder of 2024 amid weak demand.