The UK’s failure to attract investment from electric vehicle start-ups or big battery makers was “worrying”, the chief executive of luxury carmaker Bentley warned.
The government needs to tackle energy costs to spur investment and compete with other countries whose incentives are “an order of magnitude more attractive than the UK”, Adrian Hallmark told the Financial Times.
THE Bentley The boss’s comments come as governments around the world vie to attract battery manufacturing plants to protect their own auto industries as they gradually shift to making electric vehicles.
Companies such as Volkswagen, owner of Bentley, choose “Canada, Spain, Poland, Belgium and even Germany – one of the most expensive markets in Europe” to set up battery factories, a he declared.
In these countries “the incentives that are offered, which are all made public, are an order of magnitude more attractive than in the UK”, he added.
Speaking in a pre-recorded interview for the FT Future of the Car Summit this week, the Bentley chief said: “It’s surprising, if not a little worrying that not [electric vehicle] battery maker or maker has chosen the UK over any other location as their investment destination.
He also pointed out that “no one has so far chosen to invest strategically in green mobility in the UK beyond the incumbents”.
The three-day event held in London from Tuesday will feature CEOs or senior executives from Ferrari, Geely, Renault, Nissan, Volkswagen, Stellantis, Ford and Aston Martin, as well as Electric car start-ups Polestar and Fisker.
While the UK has already had talks with start-ups such as Rivian and Tesla, so far none of the new entrants have chosen to build factories in the UK. Earlier this year, Chinese company BYD said it was not even considering a factory in the country due to its decision to leave the EU.
Chinese battery group Envision is building a larger battery plant for Nissan in Sunderland and is expected to work with India’s Tata on a site to service Jaguar Land Rover, which is choosing between the UK and Spain for the plant.
The government should offer “affordable energy prices and at least equivalent incentives to get the ball rolling in terms of foreign investment”, Hallmark said, adding that energy costs in the UK are around a third higher than in continental Europe.
Bentley has pledged to manufacture its future electric cars in the UK as part of a €3 billion investment in its Crewe plant, but plans to use imported batteries.
The brand, which made around 15,000 cars last year, is not big enough to support a dedicated battery factory in the UK, Hallmark said. “Getting critical mass, building a gigafactory and making it work economically is going to be a real challenge in the UK unless a big player comes in to meet their own needs and have of spare capacity”.
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