Britain’s lack of public electric vehicle chargers and the prospect of tariffs on imported battery cars because of Brexit are risking the country’s ambitions to shift away from petrol vehicles, Ford’s UK boss has warned.
Lisa Brankin, managing director of Ford in the UK and Ireland, raised the concerns as the brand switches to battery powered vehicles with the aim to sell only electric cars in Britain and Europe by 2030.
“If we are going to switch to 100 per cent electric vehicles, we really need to have a wealth of public charging infrastructure and I’m not sure that there is a plan in place to allow that to happen,” she told the Financial Times.
The UK should copy Norway where all car parks have charging points to increase electric sales, she added.
Her second concern is the potential for tariffs on cars imported to the UK from Europe once higher “rules of origin” on batteries come into force from 2024, she said. The industry has warned that the rules, part of the UK’s post-Brexit trade deal with the EU, will drive up electric vehicle prices.
“These are the issues the government needs to be thinking about,” Brankin said. The country needs “a very multi-faceted solution and needs the government to put the framework in place.”
A government charging strategy last year outlined plans to ease bottlenecks in the rollout of charging infrastructure, such as improving planning permission and expanding local grid capacity. But Brankin said the measures will “not wholly deliver the vision for what we need”.
She said customers would also be put off buying electric vehicles if they see queues at charging bays. “We [Ford] have spent billions of dollars on electric vehicles, it is now coming fast, and we need this.”
About 16 per cent of new UK cars sold last month were electric. There are government plans for a sales mandate requiring 22 per cent of new cars sold next year to be electric, with the target ratcheting up during the decade to 100 per cent by 2030.
Brankin was speaking as the US carmaker launched the Explorer, its first battery model made using Volkswagen’s electric technology.
Ford plans to make two electric models using VW’s MEB electric car production system. It is also considering using its own technology for future models for Europe.
The Explorer, which is an electric variant of the combustion engine version sold in the US, is expected to cost less than £40,000 when deliveries begin at the end of this year.
Ford has been paring back its offering in Europe and the UK in an attempt to increase margins in the fiercely competitive region. This includes pulling out of the small car segment that has been dominated by sales of its Fiesta model.
Brankin said many of the company’s potential Fiesta drivers were buying the more expensive Puma, now the cheapest model in Ford’s range.
The Explorer will be built at Ford’s Cologne plant, the first electric car that the company will manufacture in the region. It currently imports the Mustang Mach-e from Mexico.
