The future is electric for the cars on our roads, but is the UK ready for such a major change?
At the risk of infuriating all you petrolheads out there, let’s just get it out there — electric cars are the future.
They are clean, quiet, fun to drive and help us tackle the biggest challenge of our era, climate change.
But there are some big bumps along the road to the UK’s electric destiny.
Electric vehicles (EVs) are expensive, there aren’t enough chargers, and the switchover could destroy one of the UK’s biggest industries.
There is pressure on both the Conservatives and Labour to review their climate commitments following the Tories’ surprise win in the Uxbridge by-election — where the upcoming extension of London’s Ultra Low Emission Zone was one of the big issues.
But the government is currently sticking to its plan — supported by Labour — to ban sales of new petrol and diesel cars from 2030. Sales of hybrid cars will be stopped from 2035.
So, can we meet the target?
That should concern us all because car manufacturing is an important industry in the UK.
About 780,000 people are employed in jobs connected with it — and it contributes an estimated £14bn a year to the economy.
The US, China and the EU are all investing billions of pounds to encourage electric vehicle manufacturing free rides usa.
«The investment on offer elsewhere in the world, is quite frankly, incredibly attractive,» says Emma Butcher of the SMMT.
«It does make companies think twice about when they come to make their investment decisions,» she warns.
The big issue is battery production, the single most valuable part of an electric vehicle.
China has more than 100 production plants — known as gigafactories.
About 50 planned gigafactories have been announced in the EU.
It’s been reported that France has offered 1.5bn euros of loans to help build four new gigafactories there.
Germany already has six but is said to be offering 1bn euros in loans to a company to build more.
The UK has only one, in Sunderland — and it is relatively small.
The Indian-owned carmaker Jaguar Land Rover has now announced that it’s investing £4bn in a new gigafactory in the UK, expected to be sited in Somerset, with government subsidies worth hundreds of millions of pounds.
The Faraday Institution, a battery science research group, says that the UK is going to need at least five gigafactories by 2030 to meet domestic demand, and twice that number by 2040.
So, even though electric vehicles represent the future of the car, the UK has a long way to go before the revolution happens here.