REVEALED: Why They're "FORCING" Electric Cars On Us

So here's a question I'm getting asked quite a lot at the moment. Why are they forcing so many EVs on us? To be clear that's a question I'm being asked by you guys and not by like my kids at home. They're not so bothered about the state of the electric car market but it is a good question and today I'm going to answer it or at least try to answer it with the help of a lot of breakfast cereal. So why are they forcing so many EVs on us? It's true every week seems to bring more and more new electric vehicles but talking to you guys you're saying maybe we don't want all these new EVs. Some new EVs sure but also car makers. How about some other stuff? How about some affordable petrol city cars or some affordable petrol sports cars? Some affordable any cars? Why are we only being served EVs? Or to put it in cereal terms, why are our supermarket shelves being flooded with more and more granola? Granola is fine but we'd also like some choice. We'd also like some Coco Pops. Lovely. Doesn't feel like it makes any business sense right? If as a cereal maker loads of your customers are demanding Coco Pops and only a few want granola then you're gonna make more Coco Pops right? I watched The Walk of Wall Street. I know how capitalism works. So why does it feel like we're just getting endless granola jammed in our faces like this? That's quite dry. It's gonna take me a while. You know what? You're not imagining it. They are forcing EVs on us but the they are not necessarily the they that you think they are. If you see what I mean. And that's because in the UK at least the they in question isn't the car makers. It's the government. In particular... In particular it's a piece of government legislation called the Zero Emissions Vehicle Mandate. That's dry. So you probably know that the UK has pledged to ban the sale of any new car with a petrol or diesel engine by 2035. But here's the other important bit. That 2035 date isn't a hard swish over. The percentage of cars sold that must be zero emissions will ratchet up and up and up to hit 100% by 2035. And that process has already begun. The mandate says 22% of every manufacturer's UK sales this year 2024 must be electric. 22%. Nearly one in every four cars. Then next year it's 28%. 33% in 2026 and it keeps on going up and up from there. And if car makers don't hit those targets there are heavy consequences. For every ICE car they sell over their permitted percentage they could face a fine of £15,000 per car. That's serious. And that's why car makers are forcing EVs on us right now. Because the law commands it. The government has decreed basically that for every three boxes of Coco Pops that a cereal maker sells this year they've got to sell at least one box of granola or else they'll get fined into the dust. Excuse me. Quick pop quiz. Why do you think we're not doing reviews on cars like the Ford Focus or the Ford Fiesta? Here's a clue. Ford has stopped making them. Why do you think we're more likely to do reviews on the electric Puma or the Explorer or the Capri? All of which are electric. It's because these are the cars that are being introduced instead. The only cars that Ford sell that are powered exclusively by petrol which haven't been discontinued or aren't about to be discontinued are the Mustang and the Cougar. What about VW? Another huge brand right? Traditionally very famous for petrol and especially diesel apparently. The new T-Roc. That's the last pure ice car that VW will make. And just look at the investment that they've made in electric. ID.3, ID.4, ID.5, ID.7, ID.Buzz. The Polo is dead and so is the Golf after this generation apparently. Now they could have kept some of these cars going for the next few years but there's another big factor. Euro 7 emissions regulations. Now these are a whole different set of regs that state amongst other things that no new car can emit more than 60 milligrams of NOx, nitrous oxide, by 2025. So rather than manufacturers developing newer cleaner engines which cost money and for which they can still get fined under the ZEV mandate if they don't sell enough EVs in the mix as well it makes more sense to simply take those cars off the road and invest in electric cars instead. So when I see comments like Rory's always pushing EVs I am flattered guys, thank you. I'm flattered that you think I have that much control over the industry. I wish, not yet, it's coming. But the reality is that I'm simply taste testing what's in front of me and telling you guys what tastes good or doesn't taste good. And right now that involves quite a lot of granola because that's what's coming down the pipe. So the manufacturers are spending a lot of cash developing new EVs to tempt the buying public. Question is, are the public biting? Remember I said that 22% of each car makers UK sales this year have to be EV. But a sensible question to ask is what percentage of cars sold have actually been EV? The answer this year is about 18%. It's not a bad number, nearly one in every five cars but it's not high enough to avoid car makers at least some car makers being fined into oblivion. In fact, UK manufacturers say that shortfall means they're facing ZEV mandate fines of £1.8 billion this year. That's at least part of the reason why Vauxhall announced last month that it would close its Luton factory. That plant only makes petrol and diesel vehicles, about 100,000 every year. If they kept it open and just pumped out ICE vehicles well that could have meant hundreds of millions of pounds in fines. They had to shut it down in order to concentrate on making electrics. In short, it's a bit of a mess. So what's the answer? Well, you could say to the car makers, look, that's the law, deal with it. You have to make EVs. But if people don't want to buy your EVs then you're going out of business. It's, you know, survival of the fittest. But that comes with consequences. Closing car factories means the loss of thousands of jobs but there is a little ray of light. And that's because one thing that car makers are allowed to do within the ZEV mandate is to buy and sell credits. In other words, if you're a company that only sells granola, like Tesla well then you can sell some of your excess granola credits to a company that only makes Cocoa Pops, like Aston Martin. Feel like this. There you go. Now it's nice and healthy. And that's exactly what's happening. Earlier this year, it was reported that Tesla could earn up to 400 million pounds in 2024 by selling ZEV mandate credits which is useful because Elon's a bit short on cash now, isn't he? Actually, I did an explainer about how Tesla saved Alfa Romeo using these exact same tactics. Check it out in the link down below. But even with all of that horse trading it's still not a guarantee that there will be enough credits to go around unless people buy more EVs. So the other option from a car maker's perspective is to limit how many ICE cars they're selling. Let's say if as a cereal company, you can sell six boxes of Cocoa Pops but you choose to only sell three the entire year well that means you only need to sell one box of granola to hit your target. Not a great way to run a cereal company but it is a way to meet your targets. And that's exactly what Ford recently suggested it might have to do in order to hit its targets. If each petrol car you sell is costing you 15 grand in fines you're losing money on every sale because not many companies are making 15 grand profit per car in the first place. In fact, there might only be one. Okay, that right there was just an excuse to sneak in some lovely Ferrari footage into a quite sensible film but also Ferrari do make a massive profit. But it does raise the question why isn't Ferrari being fined for not making EVs? They don't make any. Well, Ferrari is exempt because they register fewer than 2,500 cars per year in the UK. It's funny how the cars that pollute the most seem to be exempt. Anyway, there is one big thing you can do to fix all of this. You make EVs cheaper. People might not love granola but they're more likely to buy it if it's half the price of Cocoa Pops. Problem is, making EVs is more expensive than making ICE cars. It's coming down in price every year but still, at the moment, car makers can't build them quite as cheaply. Now, if the government is so desperate to get everyone eating granola what they could do is offer a bit of a sweetener. A couple of quid off each pack. That is going to make a difference. And that is what used to happen with electric cars in the UK back in the day. A decade ago, the government would offer a grant of up to £5,000 on new EVs and plug-in hybrids. Over the years, though, that grant got smaller and smaller and finally completely disappeared. But now, the car makers are saying, if you want us to sell all these EVs, you're going to have to offer the buyers, you guys, some incentives, grants, tax breaks, something. Help us make that granola a little bit sweeter. A bit like this. So far, the government, they're not playing ball. Basically, they've said, these are the rules. You've got to figure out how to play by them. But there are signs that might change, that the rules might slacken off. With so many car makers saying that these targets could put them out of business and kill off a whole load of jobs in the process, the government recently announced a consultation process, which will report back in early 2025. But before you get too excited, that review won't fundamentally change the direction of travel here. Like it or not, people are still heading towards a granola-only breakfast future. Another bite for me. But it might mean a bit more flexibility. It might even mean slightly cheaper new EVs for us buyers, which would be nice. And by the way, the government, if you're spitballing ways to make EVs more attractive, you could start by figuring out how to make public charging less ludicrously expensive in the UK. Just a suggestion. So there we go. Sorry for the deep dive into the world of government regulation and also cereal. But the conclusion is, no, you're not going mad. EVs really are being rammed down our throats at the moment. But if you don't like it, don't blame the car makers. And definitely don't blame me. I just test what's on the market. And the market is being influenced by the mandate. Blame the mandate. Oh, and if you've enjoyed this video and you've learned something, please do like, sub, bell. You know the drill. George, can I get some water? Or some milk, something. Help me out here, brother.