Currently reading: Autocar notebook: Kia boss calls for EV chargers, not more grants
Firm's UK boss thinks surge in EV sales must be met with increased investment in infrastructure

Kia UK boss Paul Philpott has said the rapid rise in EV sales should be met by a commitment to improving the UK’s charging network, rather than continued grants for EV buyers. 

“The barriers are coming down,” he said after the EV6 won What Car? Car of the Year. “I don’t think range anxiety is a big thing any more. What I do think people have is charging anxiety, and that’s where the focus needs to be. There has to be absolute confidence in the charging infrastructure. And it’s why government policy has to move away from grants to entice people to buy an EV to real tangible investment in the infrastructure that every customer across the UK can feel confident with.” 

Philpott noted that none of Kia’s three EVs comes in under the £32,000 grant threshold but said “it’s not affected demand one bit”. 

The Kia e-Niro was the UK’s best-selling EV last month and demand for the Kia EV6 is currently running at more than double the expected rate of 5000 per year.

Lada’s toughest task

97 Lada niva

Lada will totally reinvent its 45-year-old Niva off-roader in 2025, but don’t expect it to soften up much. Product performance boss Lionel Jaillet told Autocar it’s a “huge” challenge to make a car befitting the Niva legacy but its CMF-B platform (as used by the Renault Captur) will have “special modules to help its capability”. 

The Niva Legend will live on in Russia, though, thanks to looser emissions rules.

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Johnds1974 16 February 2022
I agree with the boss-man, however I think that the EV grant threshold is now out of date. The kind of EV's available up to 32K are few and far between or just not up to spec.

If the government wants to get more people onto the EV bandwagon then they seriously need to revise that outsated threshold.

Manufacturers certainly are not going to lower their prices to incentivise more sales any time soon. I managed to get the grant in September 2020 on my £38K E2008 so I don't know why they dropped it so much.

martin_66 15 February 2022
I think Paul Philpott is absolutely right - the government does need to invest more into charging infrastructure. If they did remove the grant currently applied to electric cars, one thing they could do to soften the blow might be to include a home charger with every car bought.

That idea would obviously not help people without their own drive or garage, but at least it would be a start.