Electric vehicle advocates demand even more subsidies

They are out with the begging bowl again. Here is Mike Hawes, boss of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders: “Government must use the upcoming Budget to support private electric vehicle buyers, temporarily halving VAT… to help everyone make the switch. Manufacturers have been asked to supply the vehicles. We now ask government to help consumers buy the vehicles.”

You would think he was being satirical. The manufacturers have indeed been asked to supply the vehicles, but much of the bill is landing on the taxpayer: £500m for batteries for Jaguar Land Rover, undisclosed sums for Nissan, Stellantis and Toyota, and tax giveaways for electric company cars. It is clearly not enough. More is needed to realise this brave new world.

The problem is that despite everything, we are refusing to love the electric car. Far from the steadily-rising curve of sales, the trend has reversed, with sales in the last three months falling by 18 per cent. Three-quarters of those are to heavily subsidised company car drivers, but even that motor is coughing as companies are faced with a cash squeeze from higher interest rates.

This week saw still more special pleading, from the House of Lords climate committee. It concluded that earlier subsidies had been withdrawn “prematurely”, and moaned about the scarcity of (subsidised) charging points. Among the committee’s other bright ideas for state spending were “targetted grants” to bring the EV price down to that of a comparable petrol model, and a fresh scheme to support values for second-hand electric cars.

The committee couldn’t resist a sideswipe at the “scale of misinformation” from those with the temerity to criticise the dash for EVs. It may, or may not, be relevant that the committee chairman is Baroness Parminter, an obscure Lib-Dem peer and charity adviser whose CV highlights working for the RSPCA. This is her swansong report.

Despite all this cheerleading, the SMMT and its allies are losing the battle. Manufacturers are cutting back their EV targets. In the US, Hertz has scrapped a third of its electric fleet for petrol cars. Renault has abandoned plans to list its EV subsidiary.

Looming over the whole of the West’s motor industry is the imminent Chinese invasion. So far, they have barely started attacking European markets, but such is their cost advantage that they represent an existential threat to volume carmakers.

That advantage comes primarily from the price of energy, pushed up here and across the Channel by the obsessive pursuit of green goals. The electric MG you are driving may have an old British marque on the front, but it’s made in China, with energy provided by coal. 

This is a competitive advantage that no amount of deep engineering knowledge can overcome. The Gadarene rush for electric cars is handing the Chinese the weapon to destroy one of western Europe’s most important industries, and it seems that Mr Hawes and Kate Parminter want to help them. 

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