Cupra boss slams 2030 ‘dogma’

  14 August 2023

Cupra and Seat boss Wayne Griffiths has labelled the UK 2030 deadline banning new petrol and diesel sales “dogma” and says he doesn’t think “prohibition… [is] the right way to change societies or create transformation.

“You need to convince and motivate a lot more people to purchase electric cars before you start to prohibit combustion cars.”

The EU, in contrast, is targeting a 2035 ban, and is more open to technologies such as hydrogen and e-fuels, rather than the UK’s EV-only belief.

Manchester-born Griffiths also warned of “charging deserts” and called UK’s lack of a plan to provide sufficient EV charging stations acute. 2030 “is like tomorrow”, he said.

Despite this, Griffiths doesn’t necessarily believe the 2030 target should be pushed back. “I’m just saying that if you set that target, then make it real.” He wants the government to say what needs to be happening now in order for it to become a reality, rather than “leaving the target at 2030 so that somebody else will have to fix it”.

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