The electric cars cannot manage without support. This is roughly how the decisive director of Volkswagen in England, Alex Smith, can interpret the text after the government relaxes the electric car requirements.
Alex Smith is well past his time at Volkswagen in England, where he was managing director from 2019 until November this year.
But the English businessman still cannot go quietly. Smith calls for 'complete consistency' in the UK government's approach to electric cars.
Therefore, he also thinks it is wrong that the government is now planning to drop the requirement that requires all car brands in the country to sell at least 22 percent electric cars this year.
He says so in an interview with Auto Car .
Smith believes that the government in England needs to support the investments that the car brands – and not just Volkswagen – have thrown into electric cars, because 'it is necessary to make the switch to electric cars go faster'.
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The latest figures from England also show that the sale of electric cars is progressing only very slowly. However, it must be seen in a global perspective, where sales of the car type are declining.
Conversely, a brand like Nissan has already made it clear that the government in England needs to relax its requirements for electric car sales. Otherwise, according to the car brand, it will go beyond the production of cars and thus thousands of jobs in the country.
Contrary to the Volkswagen group, Nissan builds several of its cars in England. It is, among other things, here, that the Japanese build both the Juke and Qashqai models.
However, Nissan is struggling against a bad economy. In fact, the Japanese are under so much pressure on the economy that the entire car brand may be closed in just one year. Read more about it here .