26 Sep Risk? How the UK will win the EV manufacturing game
As manufacturers of components for electric vehicles, we were delighted to exhibit alongside the Welsh Assembly at Cenex-LCV last week.
The UK’s premier event focussing on low carbon vehicle solutions, had an impressive range of seminars and exhibitors from industry leaders tackling the ongoing low carbon and EV challenges and opportunities.
Championing air pollution while driving economic growth was Deputy Head of Office for Low Emission Vehicles, Phil Killingley, who set out the government’s Road to Zero strategy and the ambition for as many as 70% of new car and van sales to be ultra-low by 2030 and zero emissions by 2040.
To turn these lofty goals into reality, he demonstrated some of the measures being taken and that will continue to unfold over the coming years. These included driving incentives, stimulating infrastructure, fostering UK R&D, as well as preparing the energy network. Furthermore, they will need to support local delivery and increasingly engage a wary public. Listening to Mr Killingley outline the strategy, it certainly reaffirmed the government’s commitment to UK manufacturing where the country will lead the way globally, for zero emissions vehicles.
The challenges are still plentiful. With infrastructure and fast charging still an obstacle and convincing the public to offset range anxiety, it’s still an extensive and costly journey right now.
But the upside will start to prevail. With reduced total cost of ownership, the monetary incentives, servicing costs being cheaper and no road tax, as well as, and really this is what we should all take away from this year, a greener way of treating our environment is getting closer.