He said: “Everyone can read the challenges for the industry as a whole on getting to the 22% and we’ve been working really hard this year on a couple of things.”
One initiative, said Taylor, is promoting the importance of improving on-street EV charging “so the 40% of customers without the driveway aren’t left behind – otherwise you’re automatically almost halving the potential population that could choose an EV and certainly enjoying the benefits of cost-effective charging”.
But more important, he said, is working out “how do we give customers the choice?”
Following a ‘multi-powertrain strategy’ helps in this regard, said Taylor, because “it is a big step moving from ICE to electric for many people”, but he added that more needs to be done – at a manufacturer and government level – to accelerate EV adoption to the levels that have been mandated: 22% this year, 28% in 2025 and on to 80% in 2030, though the government has mooted banning ICE car sales completely at the end of the decade.
Vauxhall, Taylor said, currently has a circa-25% EV order mix, “and that’s before the launch of Frontera and Grandland [a larger SUV, also due in the coming months with EV and hybrid power], when we only have three of our five cars electrified. So I’m relatively upbeat that when we get these two models launched, our electric mix running forward is going to perform very well.”
