Ford pins EV hopes on government incentives

07 October 2024

Without government incentives to stimulate retail and LCV electric vehicle demand, Ford could be forced to cut the supply of petrol and diesel cars, according to Ford managing director Lisa Brankin.

Speaking to Auto Retail Agenda, Brankin said that the Vehicle Emissions Trading Scheme (VETS), that’s linked to the ZEV Mandate, was her number one topic – and one that keeps her up at night.

Lisa Brankin, chair & managing director, Ford

“If we want to get to our target, we can’t depend just on company car drivers, because the retail sector is 40% of the industry. If we want to make VETS a success, we need some customer incentives to drive demand in the UK market and that’s what’s keeping me up at night.

“Our really strong call to UK government is that if we want to collectively get that 2030 CO2 target, we need to do something about driving customer demand.”

Without incentives to stimulate EV demand, one option for Ford would be to cut ICE supply, something Brankin didn’t rule out, despite saying that wasn’t the current plan: “VETS is a mix, so one strategy could be to say we’re not going to supply any more ICE. That’s not our plan. That’s not what we want do, but that is one of the plans that might have to happen.”

Brankin urged the government to use the upcoming autumn Budget to put incentives in place to stimulate the EV market: “There’s an opportunity that I would encourage the government to grasp to help us build momentum and get to where they need to get to, so we don’t get to 2030 and look back and think what went wrong.”

* Read the full interview with Lisa Brankin in this month’s Auto Retail Bulletin magazine, out this week.

Tags: Ford, Lisa Brankin, VETS, ZEV Mandate

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