Cars | British petrol shortage boosts demand for electric cars – Brexit brings extra costs to the car industry

A record number of electric cars were registered in Britain in September. Long queues at gas stations have changed people’s attitudes.

London

Britain The fuel shortage experienced in September – October has boosted demand for electric cars.

Inquiries to electric car dealers have even increased fivefold in the last few weeks, the British Automobile Interest Group said SMMTDirector of Mike Hawes to reporters on Tuesday.

Queues showed how dependent motorists are on petrol and diesel.

“[Polttoainepula] has clearly increased the pressure for change, which is a good thing, ”Hawes said.

Mike Hawes, director of the automotive lobby.

In Britain, long queues were seen at petrol stations when fuel could not be delivered due to a shortage of drivers. From many gas stations gasoline ran out completely. The shortage of drivers is partly due to Britain’s difference with the EU, or Brexit.

Electric cars however, sales are slowed down – in addition to price – by a shortage of charging points.

If the owner of an electric car does not have his own yard or parking space for charging, he may be in trouble. In large British cities, finding a parking space alone is difficult, let alone a recharging point.

“Massive investment in public infrastructure is needed,” Hawes said.

The British car industry is committed to a carbon-free future. Hawes estimates to be there sometime in the late 2030s or early 2040s.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson will market the use of the electric car in front of his official residence in July.

In September A record number of electric cars were sold in Britain. Nearly 33,000 new electric cars were registered.

The most popular electric cars were the Tesla Model 3, Volkswagen ID.3 and Kia Niro.

According to Hawes, the September figures are close to the full-year 2019 figures.

“This shows how steep [muutos] is.”

However, petrol-powered cars were still the most sold in September, accounting for about 44 per cent of all.

In Britain the automotive industry is an important export sector: vehicles account for the largest share of goods exports. In the pandemic year 2020, the value of car exports was £ 27 billion, or about € 32 billion, according to STTM figures.

The largest export market for British cars is still the European Union.

The car plant crowd at the Rolls-Royce engine bundle at the Goodwood plant in September 2020. British luxury cars are of particular interest in Asia.

However, the transition period that softened Brexit ended at the end of 2020. At the same time, Britain left the EU’s internal market and customs union. The result was more bureaucracy.

According to Hawes, as many as 91 per cent of UK car companies had to spend more time and resources dealing with EU exports in the first quarter of 2021. 62 per cent of UK exporters felt that “significantly” more work was accumulated than before.

Car industry however, the overall effects of brexit are difficult to quantify because the pandemic coincided at the same time. There was still a semiconductor shortage, which has still not receded.

The British car industry is now concerned about how the Brexit restrictions that will come into force later will hit the export of electric cars.

Electric car charging station in London in summer 2021.

The country of origin requirements of the EU-UK trade agreement will be gradually tightened in the coming years. British exporters have to prove that a large enough proportion of the product comes from Britain or the EU. If the conditions are not met, the product will not receive preferential tariff treatment.

The battery is the most expensive part of an electric car, about a third of the value of the car. Therefore, the place of manufacture of the battery is an essential factor. British companies have imported batteries, especially from South Korea.

“We need investment [brittiläisiin] gigas factories, ”Hawes said.

In the automotive sector, large battery plants are called gigantic plants (gigafactory).

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