According to former motoring journalist, now Net Zero lobbyist, Quentin Willson, slow consumer take-up of EVs is due to “myths and misinformation”. Concerns about fires, battery degradation, range, charging and servicing costs are all groundless, the former Top Gear host claims, or easily fixable by policy. “By 2035, if we enact the right policies and the right information for consumers, it will be achievable,” he claimed, alluding to the ban on sales of new petrol and diesel cars by that year. His comments – evidence given to a recent Select Committee on Transport session – appear to be driven by green ideology and funding from the usual Green Blob suspects.
The session aimed to hear from witnesses speaking about the “health of the EV market”, and the postponment of the ban on petrol and diesel (Internal Combustion Engine or ICE) cars from 2030 to 2035 – known as the ‘ZEV mandate’ (Zero Emission Vehicle). The Committee heard from a handful of industry representatives and journalists, whose mostly pro-ICE ban, pro-EV claims largely consisted of over-confident statements about EV performance, and whinges about there being insufficient “support” for the sector and EV owners by way of “incentives” and charging infrastructure. It is tragic to see representatives of automotive industries apparently completely comfortable with the idea of markets for new products being created by government diktat and subsidy regimes, not the merits of those products. (You can watch the entire session here.)
But it is the comments of journalist-turned-campaigner Willson that epitomise the ocean of nonsense surrounding this policy agenda. The Government has committed to abolishing ICE cars, and the law requires manufacturers and retailers to increase the number of of EVs they sell as a percentage of total sales and reduce the percentage of ICE vehicles. According to the ZEV mandate’s targets, by just 2028, 52% of new cars will have to be EVs, rising to 80% by 2030, before their complete prohibition in 2035. But people just aren’t buying them. As with most climate/Net Zero policies, public buy-in to Westminster’s radical environmentalism turns out to be an afterthought. The wheeling out of a tired motoring celeb, long since eclipsed by former co-host Jeremy Clarkson, to try to counter the looming crisis, represents the political Establishment’s and the Blob’s increasing desperation.
According to Willson, “Misinformation is really putting people off… They read this torrent of stuff from Right-wing and vested interests… All we hear are the voices from the anti-EV narrative… we don’t hear from the million-plus people who are driving these cars every day about their experiences.”
EV fires account for far fewer car fires than ICE cars, he explains. And battery performance on older cars is far better than expected – battery degradation isn’t as bad as feared.
“As a Government, you need to do something about this,” he told MPs. (Ban the Daily Sceptic?) “Misinformation is destabilising consumer demand, is destabilising industrial policy and is destabilising the industry.”
Though he may have a point that some fears have been exaggerated, EV car fires are noteworthy because they are uncontrollable once they start, not because EVs are more likely to self-combust. And battery degradation may be less of a problem than previously thought, but cars that need recharging are necessarily far more limited, and therefore have less utility, than ICE cars.
But Willson’s greatest error is his dependence on the fashionable motif in authoritarian circles: ‘misinformation’. The reason most people aren’t convinced by electric cars isn’t because they’ve been misinformed, but because they have eyes, and ears, and, behind and between them, brains with which to process the simple facts conveyed through them. Those simple facts are: EVs are more expensive than normal cars; EVs are harder to charge than normal cars are to fill with fuel; EVs are more likely to leave you stranded; EVs lose their value rapidly; and EV battery failures can be catastrophic. Put even more simply: petrol and diesel cars are more versatile and enduring than EVs.
The only way these simple facts haven’t resulted in the collapse of the EV market is an extraordinary subsidy scheme. Though recent headlines have claimed that the EV sector is booming, private purchases account for less than one in five EV sales. The rest are ‘fleet’ sales – company cars. Net Zero tax rules allow employees to write-off the cost of leasing an EV against income tax. Thus, an NHS manager on a salary of £150,000 can, with no deposit, lease a £110,000 Mercedes EQS for £750 per month, to transport them from the commuter belt to Central London. Into the bargain, EVs don’t have to pay the Congestion Charge, resulting in around £3,500 of further subsidy for the 1%. And charging points at workplaces are eligible for £850 of grants.
“London is now full of them,” Willson pointed out. Well, of course it is. The so-called Salary Sacrifice scheme allows the wealthiest people to obtain subsidised luxury vehicles so that their commutes to the capital are comfortable and guilt-free, while leaving their gas-guzzling SUVs on the drive for weekends, holidays and trips to the grandparents – or for their wives to do the school run to Brighton College. It is the benighted rest of the population that depends on second-hand petrol and diesel cars, the latter being forced off the road by green schemes such as London’s hated Ulez and other CAZs throughout the country.
Yet, Willson and his colleagues demand more incentives. “There is no financial incentive for consumers to change their behaviour,” he admits. “They will not change their behaviour for environmental reasons, they will only change their behaviour for fiscal reasons.” And this is why the Net Zero ‘transition’ had to be led by top-down policy, rather than bottom-up choices being offered to consumers through the market. The abolition of the ICE car is authoritarian. It is the result of special interest lobbying, not by consumer or voter demand. And that inevitably leads to irrational absurdities, such as subsidising executives’ commutes from Gerrards Cross to London, to the tune of tens of thousands each year.
Willson’s new campaigning organisation, FairCharge, aims to “harness the tremendous environmental, economic and social benefits of the electric revolution”. But there is no “electric revolution”. If there was, it would not require Blob outfits as its vanguard and PR front – it would have its own dynamic and growth. And the fact of Willson’s project being merely a Green Blob front organisation is further betrayed by its broader climate policy interventions. “We also want to see… the price of electricity decoupled from gas – urgently,” claims the website. This is a Green Blob false talking point – a factoid – from 2022, which occurred as European natural gas prices spiked at €340 per MWh. Since gas prices determine the price of electricity before renewable subsidies are applied, green campaigners argued that ‘decoupling’ the price of electricity from the price of gas would lead to lower bills. But the gas price today is just a tenth of that spike, meaning that power from gas is again far cheaper than electricity from wind and solar farms.
And that’s the problem. Willson, whose stock-in-trade was either approvingly or disparagingly reproducing manufacturers’ specifications to a camera, is unable to offer any substantive perspective, merely recycling Green Blob talking points.
On Twitter, climate sceptics were quick to observe that the same organisation that funds virtually every think tank prmoting Net Zero, coincidentally also fund Willson’s pro-EV outfit. Practically every single green ‘civil society’ organisation is funded by the European Climate Foundation (ECF). Even the ‘think tank’ that produced Rishi Sunak’s election-saving miracle policy of compulsory National Service, Onward, is ECF-funded. From XR, through every Labour, Lib-Dem, Conservative-aligned think tank, trade unions and university research organisations, the ECF pump tens of millions each year into seemingly ‘independent’ organisations to align commentary on the Net Zero agenda as a condition of funding. It’s the same funding that enabled UK100 to lobby for Low Traffic Neighbourhoods and Clean Air Zones throughout the country. It’s the same funding that supports the Conservative Environment Network caucus of MPs, of which Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, Clair Coutinho, is a member. And it’s the same ECF that funds the CarbonBrief outfit that produced the ridiculous “wind power is nine times cheaper than gas” fib that still animates Westminster Net Zero narratives. ‘Misinformation’ is the Blob’s vernacular for the unauthorised views or debates that occur outside of that sphere. The concept has been developed by the Blob to protect itself from democracy, debate and criticism. When the Green Blob pumps out dubious claims about the benefits of Net Zero, it’s called ‘campaigning’.
None of this would matter, and Willson would remain a D-list s’leb, had the Government and generations of MPs let people decide for themselves how, and how fast, if at all, to get to Net Zero. But the only controversy about the abolition of ICE cars as far as Westminster is concerned is about the date by which new sales are banned – 2030 or 2035 – not what principles govern policymaking in general, and the authoritarian, manifestly anti-car policies, including the ZEV mandate and CAZs in particular. Of course, industry representatives will tell politicians that they can help meet political targets if they and their extremely wealthy customers are subsidised. But where are the representatives of the millions who drive petrol and diesel cars far beyond the lifetimes that any battery manufacturer can provide a warranty for? Where are the representatives of the millions who buy decade-old bangers for the price of a week’s wages, rather than top-of-the-range luxury models? And where is the defence of economic freedom and its relationship with mobility? Not in Westminster. And not from lobbying fronts like Willson’s, that’s for sure.
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Quentin Willson also conveniently forgets that the unimaginably large amount of metals and minerals that have to be wrought from the earth for EV’s are all mined by diesel/petrol powered vehicles. So much copper is required for total electrification that at least 40 new copper mines will be needed worldwide, and it takes up to 20 years to make a copper mine productive (so I have read). Production will never keep pace with requirements. Apparently more copper has been used in the past few years than has ever been used overall. Then there is the filth and exploitation involved with the production of all the other elements needed for EV’s, despoiling and deforesting massive areas of land.
Meanwhile, our seas and waterways are filling with sewage, millions of people receive so many benefits (paid for by an ever shrinking tax payer base) they see no need to ever work, people die due to tardy healthcare and our government is in the corporate pocket.
Mr Willson, you are looking the wrong way.
They don’t forget.
They have no intention for anyone but the elite to own private vehicles.
The rest of us will make do with public transport (running when, where and if they allow it), bikes and horse and trap.
Might be worth polishing up you farrier skills.
Funnily enough, in my youth I used to train horses for carriage driving, and used to have my own driving ponies. Knowing all about everything horse-drawn may come in very useful!
I was thinking that having an electric car, needing to rest/recharge it overnight and be aware of range issues is not that dissimilar to having a horse and trap. I envy you your knowledge about horse-drawn transport.
Quentin Wilson is a milgram button pusher who would happily do whatever the bidding of authority is, even if it meant administering large amounts of cyclone gas to Jews or finding innocent men guilty of non crimes. I’m sick of moral vacuums like him lecturing us having been bribed with giant sacks of cash. Sorry Quentin I don’t want a car that work less well and costs more money.
“moral vacuums”…….love it and will plagiarise it to death.
Not mine, my dad used to use it, probably wisdom picked up at the 19th hole.
His disingenuous use of statistics regarding car fires is another squirrel moment. Petrol cars simply do not spontaneously burst into flames.
An actual green policy would be to improve public transport to a level that people would choose to use a bus/coach/tram/train than a car.
Public transport is being run down not run up which tells you everything you need to know about nut zero and green policies.
’Run up’ with taxpayers’ money?
Public transport may work in towns and cities for short distances or for A to B back to A commuting, but it is inconvenient for most people which is why it is being run down’ – not enough people want to use it.
My Regional Sales Manager, living in Surrey and regularly travelling north, has a Hybrid BMW for tax purposes. He can’t charge it at home and runs it almost exclusively on petrol. It’s lugging around a heavy battery which is seldom used and is therefore adding to his petrol consumption!
I live in the sticks in the west country. EVs are rare as hens’ teeth around here and I don’t expect that to change any time soon. I’ll be buying a new i10 in 2026 and, since I only do around 5,000 miles a year, it’ll probably last for 20 years …. unless the b@st@rds ban the sale of petrol of course ….. and then REALLY crash the economy.
And the availability of spare parts come to mind. New parts manufactured to replace parts for banned cars would be needed.
I love the way that people like Wilson always use London as the bellweather for what should apply to the rest of the country. Perhaps someone could point out to him that just as in medieval times most of us, people he would no doubt regard as proles, do not live in London or indeed in a major city. Those of us who live in rural areas, have no tube, a bus service which runs once a week, no Uber, miles between one small town and another. In the Winter without a 4×4 which we need to clear the snow and get up the tracks (rather than a status symbol to attend the gym) we are marooned, there are no charging stations, there is no little about town journey to the shops to pick up a takeaway from Ottolenghi, and finally WE DON’T WANT THEM. Perhaps he would prefer we went back to the Horse and Cart or would the Horse also be done away with due to its impact on the environment?
Well said. I’m in exactly the same position – except we don’t have a bus service even once a week!
My brother, who has lived in London most of his life, was amazed to discover we have no mains gas, no buses, no taxis unless booked weeks in advance, no uber eats, and, until recently, no mobile phone reception. Quite often we have no power either. City life is a different world.
I am on the comedy series Steptoe & Son. Maybe I should look out for some tips on the old Horse & Cart.
(rather than a status symbol to attend the gym) The old Chelsea Tractor for yummy mummies!
Remember chatting to someone who just had 4x4s….I said ‘live up a track do you’. he looked at me disparagingly and said no!
I believe that is part of the plan.
I live in a village on a B road between 2 market towns in the East Midlands. There are numerous villages along this route, but now only a bus on one day a week.
Can’t argue with the fact that once cheap motoring was available, the villages grew, but most people used their car.
The landowners did well out of selling farmyards and other land for development. Our house is one of those, not a pretty stone cottage.
So the buses became uneconomical to run.
However, the grid will not cope with us all going EV.
If nett zero isn’t stopped……
My feelings are that by the time we reach 100y or 4 generations (ie.arpund 2040/50), the countryside will be depopulated again. Most of us will have had to give up our properties (which will have no value) and move back into towns and cities.
We will have to rely on the state, private lanlords, and charity to have a roof over our heads. As we are predominately white and middle-class, we will be at the bottom of the food chain by then.
The land can then be reclaimed, rewilded, and bought up by the elite for peanuts.
As I said at the start, I believe this is part of the plan and will happen throughout the Western world.
But this is not new. The East Midlands has some of the highest numbers of “vanished villages” per County in the whole of England.
The last few times, it included the Church (which is, of course, still one of the wealthiest land holders in the country) throwing people out. This time, I suspect a religion, if involved, will be an imported one.
Interestingly, around us quite a lot of land is owned by Cambridge University.
Based on the average length of life in the last 4 generations of my family I probably won’t live long enough to see all of this happen but I genuinely think my house (by the time I die) will be more of a burden to my children rather than a financial benefit.
One benefit I do feel is that nature won’t take long to reclaim our properties. In a 1000y they may be rediscovered. The wheel will have turned again.
A bit like the dark ages where they ponder about the old Roman dwellings. A past civilisation brought down not by invasion, but by deception.
As others have countless times said, new technologies are adopted when they are shown to be an improvement on the old. EVs are not and that is why people don’t buy them.
Has anyone else noticed an increased propensity for councils to put up traffic lights for one van or truck doing a bit of work? I wonder if that is part of the war on motorists to cause queues and delays (three way lights if they can manage it to include a tiny side road too). I always just think, why can’t we treat the obstruction like a parked car, which essentially is all it is.
Yes! It’s a conspiracy I’m sure to try and put people of making trips. Often the ‘roadworks’ have nothing going on, just cones and lights. It’s counterproductive though. In order to avoid long standing terrible road work traffic queues near us, we now make a long detour, thereby using more fuel.
About a decade or so ago, they put three way traffic lights in Brecon. Before traffic flowed consistently, now, especially during rush hour there are long queues of traffic beyond where I was staying at the time. I would wash my can by the road, it didn’t bother me with passing traffic, but after the lights were installed, the traffic is at a stop and I find myself with an audience!
I have noticed exactly this. Very obvious that there is no concern about creating needless queues. This is a punishment doled out for daring to possess a car!
Correct. What really winds me up is the emergency traffic lights for a job that nobody is working on.
Here’s a groundbreaking idea: give people a free choice. Even some of the most thickest bearded Guardian readers, whilst admiring their husbands dress choice, have pause for thought. I’d have expected our superior overlords to know this from their grand Covid experiment – psychological nudging works far better than in-your-face psychological battering. And so, in the great game of chess they play, it makes me wonder – do they know they’ve overplayed their hand and know they need a collapse of the current narrative to usher in a subtler narrative? When so many people can see the emperor is standing there stark boll”ck naked isn’t the best plan to put on some pants?
Amazing what a Nice Financial package can produce
“The horse is the future. Aeroplanes and tanks only aid the man and his horse and I feel sure that as time goes on you will find just as much use for the horse – the well-bred horse – as you have ever done in the past.” (FM Haig 1926)
Field Marshals know a thing or two
The ‘wokerati’ have been known to utter stern disapproval of using horses as a sport and leisure activity. Their argument is that the horse has not been asked it’s consent and may be deeply traumatised by the use of ‘cruel and unnatural’ equipment on its body. Apparently ‘social licence’ is needed so that gen z don’t need a trigger warning every time they see someone on a horse. All equine related associations are falling over backwards to try and ensure nothing untoward happens to any animal taking part in competitions for fear of whipped up disapproval and subsequent banning of an activity, hence the watering down of the Grand National, which is now no more than a long distance chase.
I used to wander the fields in my youth practising at the Hunting horn. ‘Gone away’ always produced a great deal of excitement in any nearby horses. The Hunting Act has punished animals in so many different ways.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anRZQeoHhmo
Yes. Geoff is good. Informative and entertaining.
It seems I was right about Wilson. Funded by Globalists to meet Agenda 21/30 and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals.
A revival of the classic car industry is on the cards. As the founder of C&C I thought the car&classic industry had seen its day. The youngsters were more keen on flipping open their laptops than a bonnet. Invest in bangers and teach your sons how to service and repair! BTW I’m on the right side of history just like the Daily Sceptic my favourite read.
Brilliant article. Thank you.
The elites looking after themselves again – Net Zero would appear to be another scam on a grand scale. CO2 is food for plants, trees and crops!
He’s on the EV payroll then……