I think it has finally happened: I can’t keep up with the car world. Sorry. I just suddenly feel overwhelmed.
Where to start? Well, Land Rover announced that it was dropping its straight-six petrol engine from the Defender, which from memory it introduced only about 30 minutes ago, in favour of a V8. Now, don’t misunderstand me: I don’t mind this idea at all. But the V8 in question is JLR’s own supercharged 5.0-litre one, which I thought it had replaced with BMW’s twin-turbocharged 4.4-litre one.
Then Mate Rimac, of electric hypercar fame and sometimes dubbed ‘Europe’s Elon Musk’ by the press (I think I would sue if anyone called me that…), told the Financial Times’ Future of the Car conference that the next Rimac is unlikely to be an EV. Which is weird, because that’s what he’s famous for. But Rimac has sold only 50 of its planned 150 Neveras, see. Which makes me wonder how many Nevera derived Pininfarina Battistas (new special edition out this week) haven’t been sold.
Rimac, who we like a lot here, is also against regulators’ measures to make all cars electric, telling conference attendees that he was “always against” what he called “forced adoption”.
It was quite the week for alarming quotes on this theme. If Ford doesn’t meet zero-emissions sales ratios in the UK, it will restrict supply of ICE vehicles and “sell these vehicles somewhere else”, said Martin Sander, Ford of Europe’s EV chief.
“We can’t push EVs into the market against demand,” said Sander, ruling out paying fines for not meeting minimum zero-emissions car sales quantities (they would be £15,000 per car) or selling off EVs cheaply to make up the numbers.
As we reported recently, Stellantis chief Carlos Tavares has called the UK policy of enforcing a certain percentage of EV sales “terrible”.
Both viewpoints come against a backdrop of China being expected to start dumping EVs here even more cheaply than they are now, which would put the wind up me as a car executive too.
Meanwhile, selling cars in China is giving car makers another headache, because they can’t keep up with the market’s price wars. Nissan has called it “a survival game”, and I’m not sure it will win it when Chinese car makers instruct workers that “a small mistake is not allowed in 2024!” while they’re at the urinals.
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"It's harder than ever to know what car makers will do next"
...no it isn't. I'll bet any money the next thing they do is to put up their prices. And then again next month, and the month after, and so on.
Don't worry about it Matt, the manufacturers don't know what they're doing either.
Ford will never attach the Mustang name to a fully electric vehicle even though they already have, all Seat cars will be Cupras, except that apparently we misunderstood that and there will now be future Seats, GTX will replace GTi but now it won't, GTX is dead, but there are now more GTX's to come .... Left hand and right hand come to mind, but maybe it would just be easier if manufacturers just stopped talking about what's happening next, two weeks later they're saying something different anyway.
Here's the thing though - they aren't. Nobody, anywhere, is mandating specifically electric vehicles. They are mandating cars with zero tailpipe emissions, which should be good news to anyone with lungs.
Carmakers can whine about it, which sadly they've gotten away with for 30 years, or actually be part of the solution. Don't want to sell EVs? Dip into your profits and build out a hydrogen fuelling network. Aren't selling enough EVs? Design more exciting models, and make an effort towards consumer education. We've had decades with the likes of Jeremy Clarkson talking rubbish, and the largest industry on the planet funding disinformation and lobbying campaigns against electric vehicles; it will take some *actual effort* from manufacturers and press to override that.