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The EV market could experience aggressive financial incentives as car brands focus on accelerating the switch to electric, the audience of The Lead Agency webinar heard.
Tony Whitehorn, former UK CEO and President of South Korean manufacturer Hyundai, explained in order to boost demand and hit certain targets to avoid fines under the Government’s ZEV mandate, manufacturers may offer large discounts to combat customer hesitation.
Whitehorn said: “Car manufacturers are not making as much money out of EVs as they are out of vehicles with internal combustion engines. But they’ve got to sell a whole load more battery electric vehicles to avoid paying hefty fines.
“Therefore, there are going to be big discounts and a lot of incentives to tempt people to purchase them.
“Already I’m seeing a large number of zero per cent finance offers, with huge financial deposit allowances – up to £8,000 on one volume-selling vehicle, which surprised me”.
Despite a steady number of registrations since the pandemic there have been concerns regarding pockets of downturn in demand.
A lack of charging infrastructure in the UK has been an obstacle. Whitehorn notes that there are currently 50,000 EV charging points in the UK, with an expectation for there to be 80-100,000 chargers by the end of the year.
When compared with the number of charging points in South Korea (200,000), the urgency of the need for more charging points becomes more apparent.