Car makers are offering record discounts on new electric vehicles in a desperate bid to invigorate demand as binding end-of-year sales targets loom, data suggests.
Oh dear, how sad, never mind. When you sup with the Devil you need a bloody long spoon. The industry could have used its clout and told the government where to stick its targets, but no, they just had to get on board and try to dump this crap on the consumer. However, as consumers we have the option of keeping our wallets closed and that is what is happening.
So, while I might feel a little sorry for the car manufacturers and dealers, it’s limited. They had an option very early on an didn’t take it. Now that decision is going to bite.
The biggest discount of all in percentage terms is on the DS3 Crossback E-Tense – it usually retails at an average price of £37,862 but was selling last month with 36 per cent off.
It means the average price paid in October was closer to £23,345, which is a saving of £14,517.
Fourteen grand off a useless piece of crap is still a useless piece of crap and I’m not buying one. I’m not alone and this is not sustainable as they will be making huge losses as they keep doing a Dibbler* in order to avoid the fines.
*Well done for getting the reference – it isn’t too onerous, though.
There is NO demand. Full stop. This is just smoke and mirrors.
And for those poor, misguided fools who actually buy a milk float “cheap” (there must be a few), the price will probably at least halve before it’s even been ten foot beyond the dealer (and these fools will be well and truly lumbered with their incendiaries. I doubt if the dealer would take it back even if you paid them).
I reckon this sort of lunancy is one of the first things the Donald will take outside and shoot.
Then it really will become interesting.
Lammy – the death star of stupidity – as minister for EVs? Might be worth an each way bet. Not buying one could then be waycist.
My driving circumstances are such that there is a case for me to have an EV. But, to save the planet a bit, I’m not going to replace my current diesel until it falls to pieces. And even then the availability of electric power, let alone charging points, may not survive the predicted rolling blackouts.
Dibbler as in C.M.O.T?
I think car makers/dealers were banking on governments banning or limiting ICE vehicles which would force the rubes … er consumers to open their wallets for EV if they didn’t want to take the bus or train. Some governments might till have such plans, although whether they can/will actually go through with them is another story. I don’t think any of the elites high on their own flatulence thought the consumers would fight back so quickly or so vehemently. FJB, TTK, and other world leaders thought they had a mandate to stick it to the little guy to “Save the Planet”. This does not seem to be the case…
I have long thought that the public’s spending power is like an additional kind of democracy, possibly giving more power to the people than voting. Quite a few large companies who thought that it was their business to tell us what to think have had their noses bloodied when people stopped buying their stuff.
Elsewhere you can read about how we are having to import more and more electricity from abroad as our witless government closes down more power stations with the laughably deluded idea that we can rely on wind and solar
power. Joined up government right there, try to force everyone to buy an electric car and the fail to provide the necessary power to charge them. I’m seriously considering upgrading our little gennie for a more powerful one. Ideally I would prefer one that would run on red diesel that can we could switch the consumer unit over to when the blackouts start but, at the moment that would be too expensive to justify.
Cars, of all consumer products, are an area where replacement can be delayed for a long long time. Even if you historically replace your car every year there is no great pain in holding on to it for five years or more. Especially if you are feeling the pinch a bit, or worried what the government are going to tax next. So as a battle ground for forcing green on us, it was poorly chosen.
I’ve never been a regular replacer of cars. I change mine when something big breaks or when it starts to get uneconomical to pass the MOT test. Cars nowadays are more durable than they have ever been, mine has recently passed 100,000 miles and still runs fine.
Personally (and I’m sure I’m not alone), anything that needs a subsidy or a large discount to get the public to buy is a no no. I just bought a very low mileage five year old petrol car and was happy to pay a significant premium for it.
I don’t feel even a little sympathy.
Sales quotas are the dumbest idea, in a whole ocean of dumb ideas, the greenists have ever come up with. You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink.
I see they’re banning gas boilers from new-build houses from 2027 next. I predict swathes of houses being built with gas central heating systems fitted, supply your own boiler. The bureaucrats have probably thought of that, but honestly… who’d buy one of these jerrybuilt modern dumps when it doesn’t even have decent heating?
“DS3 Crossback E-Tense”
Why do they call cars after exercise equipment these days? It’s a bloody Citroën. French cars used to be known for their comfort and relaxing ride. That thing sounds like you’d fall out of it gasping for breath after a ten minute drive down to the shops.
Yup, because if the proles won’t voluntarily buy our expensive, weak and chilly “heat” pumps, then they’ll have to be forced to purchase them when they buy a new home.
Cue a sudden mass refusal to purchase Barrett’s latest rabbit hutches since they have any additional £15 to £20 thousand worth of useless heat pumps.
I suspect that some of the smaller manufacturers will pull out of the uk market when the govt starts fining them for each ICE car sold when their electric sales don’t reach the agreed percentage of sales . If a manufacturer sells 10000 cars in 2024, the mandate requires that 2200 must be electric vehicles. So if they sell 2000 EVs, they’ll be fined £15,000 for every one of the 200-car shortfall.
That figure of £15,000 ties in neatly with the discounts being offered …