Vauxhall owner Stellantis reportedly has warned it may have to halt production in Britain unless the government does more to boost demand for electric vehicles (EV).
Maria Grazia Davino, the group’s UK MD said UK rules banning the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2035 were too tough, according to the BBC.
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She said a decision about whether to close the Stellantis plants in Ellesmere Port near Liverpool and Luton could come in “less than a year”.
“Stellantis UK does not stop, but Stellantis production in the UK could stop,” she was said to have told reporters at an industry conference.
The BBC noted the UK government initially set a goal of 2030 to ban sales of new petrol and diesel cars but had to delay the plan by five years to give consumers more time to make the transition to electric vehicles.
Explaining the decision, the prime minister said the “upfront cost” of EVs was still too high.
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By GlobalDataThe BBCC noted Stellantis makes electric vans at its Ellesmere Port plant and has previously said it would start making electric vans at its Luton plant in 2025.
A Reuters report noted that, unlike the European Union, where automakers can meet CO2 emissions reduction targets by selling a mixture of hybrids and EVs, Britain was demanding from this year automakers sell a minimum percentage of fully electric cars or face fines of GBP15,000 (US$19,033) per non-compliant vehicle sold.
“In the UK there will be consequences (of the mandates) for sure,” Davino told Reuters.
This year, the UK government had ruled 22% of all new cars sold must be EVs. According to SMMT data, fully electric cars only made up 16.1% of sales through to May.
There are still UK tax incentives in place for corporate fleets to buy EVs, but there are no subsidies for consumers to buy EVs that are more expensive than fossil-fuel equivalents, Reuters added.
