As electric-vehicle adoption rates steadily rise around the world, a growing chorus of car executives are criticizing governments on the grounds that they’ve picked the winning horse.
Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares has been among the most vocal, saying last year: “What is clear is that electrification is a technology chosen by politicians, not by industry.” Just this month, BMW CEO Oliver Zipse chastised Germany and the European Union’s industrial policy, claiming in an interview with Handelsblatt that countries want to rely on a single drive technology, rather than a breadth of options.
The logic here is tempting. Governments have indeed rolled out strong support for battery EVs in the form of purchase subsidies, funding for charging infrastructure and other measures. In most cases, though, governments have actually bent over backwards to make their support as technology-neutral as possible.
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