OV9

Proper kicking last night for the Tories...

Pressure will build for a General Election now no ?

dinny_g wrote: Fri May 05, 2023 9:37 am Proper kicking last night for the Tories...

Pressure will build for a General Election now no ?

Hopefully.

No

Yeah, they've been softening the blow of these results for weeks. They know they're going at the next general so they won't call one till they have to.

https://news.sky.com/story/tory-backlas ... s-12965229

No surprise to anyone.. generally a good thing imho, but not great for our car manufacturers who’ve already begun the move to EV only by 2030.

J, one of the 4 houses formerly known as JLR, probably behind schedule anyway!

No one gives a shit about net zero apart from politicians circle jerking each other in a pointless competition to be the greenest. Simply a scheme for taking money away from the common person and putting it in the pockets of mainly China and then the government. And another tool to increase inflation.

If they can't produce the batteries in this country by that time, then the whole thing falls over for us anyway.

It'll be a bit pointless actually manufacturing them here surely? They won't allow mining the raw materials for it here, so then they would have to ship in all the hazardous materials from the other side of the world, then build it in a factory which is understaffed and always on strike and then eventually end up with a battery which costs double vs to just ship in from China... British steel all over again.

Mito Man wrote: Tue Sep 19, 2023 11:21 pm It'll be a bit pointless actually manufacturing them here surely? They won't allow mining the raw materials for it here, so then they would have to ship in all the hazardous materials from the other side of the world, then build it in a factory which is understaffed and always on strike and then eventually end up with a battery which costs double vs to just ship in from China... British steel all over again.

unfortunately, part of The trade and cooperation agreement we've signed up to includes rules of origin for all the car parts, it basically says that if we don't manufacture the batteries in the U.K. then we can't sell the cars we manufacture here abroad without a 10% tariff added.

No battery production, no exporting cars. Why would any manufacturer make cars here if it costs them an extra 10%?

The best thing for everyone to do is buy shares in Technology Minerals Ltd, then you can be part of the recycling revolution and bring a green edge to the electric future.

Go British, go electric.

(Rule Britannia, loud to fade)

He seems to be making a sensible and logical decision, I’m surprised.

Dave!

The fact that you have Tory MPs that are such rabid Eco-nuts that they're saying that they'd put in a letter of no-confidence over moving an unrealistic commitment that everybody knows will not be seen through shows how not fit for purpose they've become.

Labour are being surprisingly quiet on this? Quiet in agreement or just waiting to see the reaction before choosing a side?

No doubt they'll propose changing it back to 2030 and put off a load of people in the process.

From what I’ve heard labour have been saying what a bad thing it is and they’d want to stick to 2030. Don’t think there have been any official statements yet.

Like you say, waiting to gauge public opinion and spin their policies the way they think is going to win them the most votes.

I can’t remember who it was, but one of the tories was quoted on the radio as basically telling the manufacturers that if their ev products were good enough they would sell regardless of the governments policy.

Seems fair enough to me. Make them more affordable, convenient, cheaper to run than conventional cars and people will buy them. No one is saying you have to keep making IC cars until 2035, just you won’t be able to sell them after. Make the cars good enough / help improve the infrastructure and no one will want to keep buying smelly old petrols…

Mito Man wrote: Wed Sep 20, 2023 10:12 am Labour are being surprisingly quiet on this? Quiet in agreement or just waiting to see the reaction before choosing a side?

Probably announce they'll bring it forward to 2025..

I agree with Harry/Ian: build good ones and they'll sell. Plus giving the country 5 more years to sort out the infrastructure (lol) is also probably a good idea!

Looks like they will bring it back to 2030. The UK productivity puzzle - most of it due to clueless fuckwits in politics stopping investment from large companies as no one knows what the fuck is happening. No long term planning possible.

The problem is, some manufacturers probably made huge decisions based on the UK being 5 years ahead of the rest of Europe, where to build stuff, what stuff to gear up, etc (remember car manufacturers take as much as 7 years to develop the next model - 2030 is 7 years away).

They may have chosen to divert massive amounts of EV production allocation to the UK knowing full well they could still sell ICE cars in Europe for another 5 years, but the U.K. would be EV sales only 5 years earlier than everywhere else.

They'll now possibly be upset by the change and may choose to not bother making models in the UK, etc... we've seen how fickle they can be about setting up new car plants (and ditching existing ones).

As said above, if their EV is so good then people will buy it regardless. I think Ford are upset because they've binned off all their good small cars and what hybrids they have now are pretty shit

It's a total non story this. The EU stepped back from 2035 only this year so there won't have been any material impact to manufacturers by the UKs decision only 4mo later that won't already have impacted them earlier this year

Odds for it slipping to 2040 (both EU and here)?.. I mean, look at Berlin Brandenburg Airport or Stuttgart train station (plus our own HS2): so, so far behind initial completion dates/costs that it's no longer funny.. the required infrastructure won't be ready until 2035 at the earliest I reckon (irrespective of who runs our Gov between now and then). Also, the Chinese, who lets face it are leagues ahead of the West on battery manufacture, are now looking at the next generation of batteries (Sodium, a hugely abundant material, -Ion batteries are this months darling..) that will change the infrastructure needed.. Politicians have no chance of keeping up and appealing to their constituents at the same time! Thankfully, our PM is a billionaire so doesn't have to worry about it too much (wish I'd married well - note for self: marriage - first time for love, second for money! )