BMW is keeping the V8 alive. Volkswagen will continue with the combustion engine. If everyone drove an electric car, it would be like becoming a vegetarian, says Harry Metcalfe.
– I have been involved in the automotive industry for many years, and I have never seen greater confusion in the European automotive industry.
So says Harry Metcalfe, who co-founded the car magazine Evo Magazine in 1998. And although he has nothing against electric cars as such, he is not in doubt about one thing in particular.
– Reaching 100 percent electric cars is like everyone becoming vegetarian, he says.
But the fact that we have an industry in reverse is, in a way, the car brands' own fault, believes the English motoring journalist and farmer.
– Dieselgate was the beginning of everything. At that time, diesel cars were very popular in Europe. They wanted to sell in the US, but there were regulations about emissions there, and along the way, Dieselgate was discovered.
The scandal that began at Volkswagen has since spread to almost all of its competitors in Europe. And it hasn't actually escaped them yet.
As recently as September last year, Volvo had to pay a million-dollar fine for cheating with diesel engines. Read more about it here.
But according to Harry Metcalfe, that doesn't change the fact that EU politicians and drivers are talking past each other. Not everyone can be forced into an electric car. But the EU system insists on that.
– Our decision-makers want to get us to buy electric cars and will try to raise taxes on internal combustion engines. But that's the wrong way to go; politicians and consumers don't speak the same language.
Harry Metcalfe is not one to deny that there needs to be a change in the automotive industry. But he doesn't believe that throwing everything behind the electric car is the solution.
– It's like the whole country is going vegetarian. It's not for everyone, and we have to understand that car buyers and decision makers are not on the same page. But there are smaller electric cars that are good and suitable for certain things.
Harry Metcalfe mentions the Renault 5 or Fiat Panda as examples of electric cars that most drivers can afford.
But these cars also have their limitations. Outside urban areas and on longer journeys, they don't perform very well.
