The Conservatives recognised it was unrealistic to suppose we can ban new petrol and diesel cars in 2030 so they put it back to 2035. I gave one cheer, then told them they also needed to scrap the £15,000 fine per new petrol or diesel car sold above a maximum. They introduced a target of battery cars to be at least 22% of the total this year rising to 80% by 2030.
The new government has brought the ban on new petrol cars forward to 2030. It has not yet revised up the percentage of battery cars, though presumably it wants a target to hit of 100% in 2030. This is unlikely.
This year with just one a half months to go battery car sales are at 18% instead of 22%. They do not seem to be heading for 28% next year. Fining manufacturers for making good petrol cars people want to buy is a disgrace. It is leading some car companies to think of manufacturing elsewhere. The industry is in crisis talks with Ministers this week,
The government should not fling more subsidy at battery cars. It should not fine car companies for consumer reluctance to buy battery. It should end this tyranny of false targets.
November 20, 2024
Another example of this so called ‘government’s ‘ incoherent lack of thinking something through
November 20, 2024
Good morning.
The UK Government has to wait for the EU to give its permssion before it can do anything. Anyone who thinks we have left is deluding themselves. We are lockstep with EU regulations and cannot differ. That is the so called BREXIT we have been given.
Germany and its economy is going down the pan. Energy underpins all economic activity and the failure to plan ahead is going to cost them dear. But it is worse than that. The EU is highly dependent upon Germany and its contributions as are recipient States. So when Germany fails, the EU will fail.
BREXIT was a golden oppotunity the British people gave to the governing class in this country. They took one look at it and said; “Nah ! We prefer to be told what to do. Thinking for ones self is too difficult.”
As we have seen over the past two decades, our membership of the EU has undermined our ability to self govern. Because a nation that wishes to self govern tends to put energy as a key item in their agenda.
November 20, 2024
This smacks of the kind of command economy I saw in the DDR when I lived and worked in West Germany back in the early 1980s. I had to visit the DDR in my brand new silver Mercedes, and the contrast could not have been greater : The air in East Berlin was almost unbreathable thanks to all the Trebants and other 2-stroke cars which were the only cars an Ostie could buy !
When I went back, 2 years after the Inner German Border was dismantled, every second-hand Golf in West Germany had gone East, and there wasn’t a Trebant to be seen anywhere!
A command economy didn’t work then, and it is already doing immense damage in Starmer’s Britain now.
Without massive subsidies to private buyers, the number of EV sales are not going to increase as Milibrain is hoping.
Labour can either see the British car manufacturing industry severely damaged, probably terminally, or they will have to back down and allow market forces to prevail.
Either way, my wife and I will most definitely not be buying an EV.