Why don’t customers want big electric pickup vehicles? - video Dailymotion

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2 days ago

CGTN Europe interviewed Peter Wells, Professor of Business and Sustainability, Director of the Centre for Automotive Industry Research

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00:00Now, in another red light for green engines, Ford says it's scrapping the development of large electric vehicles,

00:07predicting a $19.5 billion hit to profits.

00:11The company cited falling demand and White House EV policies for the shift in strategy.

00:17U.S. President Donald Trump has cut incentives for EV buyers and eased emission rules.

00:23Ford says it will now focus on hybrid and gas-powered models, as well as small budget EVs.

00:30Well, Professor Peter Wells is Director of the Centre for Automotive Industry Research at Cardiff University.

00:36Thank you so much for joining us.

00:38Why don't customers want big electric pickup vehicles?

00:44Well, in a sense, it's not surprising.

00:46The way that Ford has executed this particular strategy,

00:50they've lined up an electric version of the traditional Ford F-Series truck,

00:55and that electric version is heavier, it's more expensive,

00:59it has a reduced range, and it can't tow vehicles as well as the traditional petrol-powered F-Series truck.

01:06And not surprisingly, consumers look at that and think, well, there's not much incentive for me there.

01:12And I think that's the problem.

01:13If you think back to what Elon Musk did with Tesla, when they took the electric vehicle market in the U.S. by storm,

01:20they created compelling vehicles that customers wanted, regardless of whether or not they were electric.

01:27And they were rewarded for that by burgeoning market share and very strong growth.

01:32Ford has simply done the opposite.

01:34How much has the easing of the subsidy or the removal of the subsidy by Donald Trump on electric vehicles had an impact?

01:42Because we know that Ford is going ahead with the smaller EVs.

01:46Yeah, I think overall the measures taken by Donald Trump have indeed been very damaging because it's all about momentum.

01:53Consumers, manufacturers, investors, they all want to see momentum growth going on behind this shift to electric.

02:02As soon as you start to slow that down and create obstacles, not surprisingly, people get concerned.

02:08Consumers don't want to buy anymore.

02:09Investors get cold feet.

02:11And inevitably, we see that momentum beginning to fall apart.

02:15And that's going to be very damaging for the U.S. industry and for U.S. consumers.

02:19Let's move now to the EU.

02:21They are pulling back on that ban, total ban by 2035 on combustion engines.

02:27And we're seeing the auto industry.

02:29Not everyone's happy.

02:31I would imagine it really does mess around with your strategies.

02:34But how significant is this for the European car industry?

02:39Yeah, it's a very good question.

02:40I mean, I think, although it looks like a small change, 10 percent less in terms of the carbon emissions requirements,

02:46actually underneath that is quite a profound shift again.

02:49It allows continued use of plug-in hybrids.

02:52We know from available evidence that those hybrids never deliver the sort of carbon reduction emissions that are required,

03:00that people really just use them in petrol or diesel mode.

03:03And for some manufacturers, let's take Volvo as a great example,

03:07they've really committed down this path on the basis of a decision that was taken only three years ago,

03:13and now that's being turned back.

03:15So I do think there's a massive concern amongst many different players within the industry

03:19that this kind of switchback of policy makes forward planning and strategy extremely difficult.

03:24What does it mean then for climate goals?

03:27Is it also fairly insignificant, bearing in mind it's just a 10 percent easing?

03:31No, I think it's much more powerful than that, to be honest.

03:35It's partly about the message it sends out, not just to European consumers and European industry,

03:40but to the worldwide market and to issues around climate change generally.

03:45I mean, what this really says is, yeah, we'll protect our industry.

03:48If there's any remote concern about the industry, we'll protect it,

03:52and we'll put aside the environmental issues.

03:53I don't think that's a great message to send, and it goes back on years of EU policy.

03:58So I think this is a really important decision, much bigger than would have first appeared.

04:03Thank you so much for your time. Much appreciated.

04:06That's Professor Peter Wells, Director of the Centre for Automotive Industry Research at Cardiff University.

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