RAY MASSEY: How I Wish They’d Eliminate Crazy Electric Car Fees

Automakers are forced to make thousands of electric vehicles that customers don’t want, and face large fines if they don’t.

That is the strategy the Government is following due to an ecological plan devised by public officials that could generate a glut of expensive electric vehicles.

What’s more, it could create a shortage of low-polluting petrol-electric hybrids, for which demand is booming, collapse residual values ​​and destroy what’s left of UK car manufacturing as China moves to clean them up.

Ultimately, UK consumers will pay the price, along with motor industry workers and suppliers who face losing their jobs when factories are forced to close.

But don’t take my word for it. Ask his Labor colleague and former union leader Lord Woodley of Wallasey, who condemned the plan as “political suicide”.

He should know. As a teenager, Tony Woodley began his motoring career at the Vauxhall plant in Ellesmere Port, Merseyside.

When I met him in the mid-1990s, he was the tough but highly respected chief motor industry negotiator for the giant Transport and General Workers Union (TGWU), before becoming its general secretary from 2004 and deputy general secretary of the Unite Union from 2007 to 2011. Like industry bosses, he has stressed that moving towards an electric future is the right thing to do, but what is wrong are the unsustainable timetable and draconian fines.

This is the Government’s Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) Mandate, which requires 22 per cent of all new cars sold to UK customers this year to be fully electric. That will rise to 28 per cent next year and then rise to 100 per cent by 2035. Carmakers are fined £15,000 for each non-EV vehicle sold up to the target figure. “It’s ridiculous,” Lord Woodley told his companions.

So far the industry is falling around 4 per cent short of that quota, on track to face fines worth £1.4bn. Car companies are already subsidizing each electric vehicle by around £6,000, which Lord Woodley revealed adds another £2bn to costs.

The fines can be offset by purchasing credits from manufacturers that exceed their electric vehicle targets, namely Chinese manufacturers and the American brand Tesla.

“The idea of ​​British manufacturers paying the Chinese or the Americans billions in loans is nonsense and, in my opinion, political suicide in automotive districts across the country,” he added.

“The market has collapsed, apart from fleet sales, so we need incentives to both build and buy.” Instead, VAT on new electric cars and VAT on public chargers should be reduced to match that of private home chargers. The higher road tax on the purchase of expensive cars should be removed and the timing of the ZEV mandate “reset” to realistic levels.

Electric vehicles and exported commercial vehicles must be counted as “credits.”

Two Vauxhall van plants, Ellesmere Port and Luton, are already “at serious risk of being closed” because of this, it warned.

Robert Forrester, boss of car dealer Vertu, welcomed his comments, saying: “At last Parliament has debated electric vehicles with a proper debate on the damaging Zev Mandate.”

Motorists are saved in the budget

Motorists who drive the vast majority of cars were saved from a tax rise this week when Chancellor Rachel Reeves maintained a freeze on fuel duty.

But the real problem, as always, is in the larger details.

The RAC’s Simon Williams said: “Drivers will breathe a sigh of relief following speculation that the 5p cut would be scrapped at the same time as the tax would be increased beyond the long-term rate of 57.95p.”

Eight in ten drivers tell us they rely on their vehicles, while 70 per cent of commuters living in rural areas have no viable alternatives to getting to work other than taking a car.’

He added: “It is also worth remembering that today 56 percent of the total price per liter of gasoline is already subject to tax in the form of fuel tax and the VAT that is applied on top of it.”