Will the race to net zero be over for the UK car industry? The UK’s car industry faces being wiped out unless the Government steps up help with the switch to electric vehicles, a leading industry figure has warned.
Former Nissan boss Andy Palmer predicted it is “probable” that car firms would leave the UK without a huge subsidy package similar to the billions in support the US and the EU are providing., but had a “last opportunity” to boost the sector. It was “not only possible, it’s probable” that UK-based carmakers could leave, he told BBC Radio 4’s T“You are into a period of either you compete… or you manage the decline of the British industry down to fundamentally next to zero,” he said.
“We have the last throw of the dice in order to bring back some part of that industry; if we don’t then we have to look for alternative employments for the 820,000 people.”, the world’s first mass-market electric vehicle, now chairs electric battery firm InoBat. He was speaking after the Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, said the UK would not go “toe-to-toe in some distortive global subsidy race” withThe Chancellor had earlier told MPs on the Treasury Select Committee that he welcomed the $369bn US inflation reduction programme, saying it’s a good thing the world’s largest economy is “taking climate change seriously.”
He said the Americans are “playing catch-up,” but admitted the plan could pose a danger to UK green investment. “There are risks as a result of that and we need to mitigate against those risks,” he said. “That doesn’t necessarily mean matching subsidy for subsidy, but it means that making sure the overall package, which means people choose to invest in the UK, remains attractive.”, said: “The UK new car and van market is already moving at pace towards electrification.