Budget labeled a ‘missed opportunity’ to get Britain’s stuttering electric vehicle revolution back on track
The budget has been labeled a ‘missed opportunity’ to get Britain’s faltering electric vehicle revolution back on track.
Industry figures and two former transport secretaries spoke out amid growing fears the UK will not be ready for the ban on new petrol and diesel cars in 2030.
Problems include a lack of charging stations and the often sky-high price of buying and plugging in an electric vehicle (EV). And while Chancellor Jeremy Hunt froze fuel duty for the 13th year in a row – saving petrol and diesel drivers around £6bn a year – there was no policy to encourage the move to greener cars.
Andy Palmer, former head of automaker Aston Martin, called Hunt’s Budget “counterintuitive” when it came to electric, especially given plans to ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars within seven years.
“The frozen fuel tax seems like a missed opportunity to stimulate the switch to electric cars,” he said. Adrian Hallmark, Bentley’s chairman and CEO, hailed tax incentives to boost investment, which the budget outlined as “a great first step.” But he said ministers need to do more to “stimulate the transition to green technology.”
Distraction-driven: Issues include a lack of charging stations and the often sky-high price of buying and plugging in an electric vehicle
“Only then can we be an attractive proposition to automakers looking at where to build the next generation of batteries and beyond,” he said.
A series of problems – from a lack of charging points to the failure of plans to build a £3.8bn car battery gigafactory in Northumberland – have revealed a lack of progress.
Lord Darling, who was transport secretary under Tony Blair, said the high turnover of transport ministers – five in the last five years – means the UK’s electric car revolution is naturally taking off.
“Frankly, there have been so many transportation secretaries that you lose count, which is actually part of the problem with the Department of Transportation,” Darling said.
Gordon Brown’s transport secretary, Geoff Hoon, called the budget “disappointing”, especially given the lack of focus on charging points.
In 2022, only 8,680 charging devices will be installed nationwide.
And there is a north-south divide with almost a third in London. Westminster has more than Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Leeds, Sheffield and Birmingham combined.
Hoon said: ‘We are moving towards a situation where there will be no production of petrol and diesel cars by 2030 – people need to make that change sooner rather than later. You would have thought that a tax break or an incentive would have made a lot of sense there.”