Peugeot CEO Linda Jackson says the government should find ways to “stimulate” the market for new and used electric cars, in order to accelerate the transition from ICE to EV power.
Speaking to Autocar at the Brussels motor show, Jackson said Peugeot’s eight-strong passenger EV line-up is the “largest of any European manufacturer”, and hailed the 400-plus-mile ranges of the new e-3008 and e-5008 as a sign of the real-world usability of the brand’s electric cars.
She also highlighted that Peugeot was compliant with the UK’s zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate last year – both as part of the Stellantis group and in its own right, notching up an EV sales mix of more than 22%. Thirty-one per cent of sales of the new 3008 have been for the electric version in the UK.
Peugeot has “all the tools to attack 2025”, said Jackson, but added that state support is still needed to help grow EV sales.
“There are only so many things we can do as a manufacturer,” said Jackson. “We’ve got the products, we’ve got the ranges, we’ve got the customer experience and we’ve got competitive offers in the market – because we wouldn’t be achieving the mandate and achieving a level of market share on BEVs if we didn’t have the right level of competitiveness.
“But I think then we need some help from governments, don’t we? I mean, there are only so many things a manufacturer can do. I think inevitably we need a little bit of help from the government to stimulate the market. So hopefully we may see something.”
Currently, there are no government-backed incentives for private electric car buyers in the UK, despite the ZEV mandate requiring manufacturers to achieve a 26% EV sales mix in 2025, rising to 33% in 2026 and then in increments to 80% in 2030 – when the sale of new pure-combustion cars will be banned.
Last year, although the UK overtook Germany to become Europe’s biggest EV market, electric vehicles accounted for just 19.4% of new car registrations, some way short of the 22% mandate.
Jackson said bumping up that share to the levels mandated over the coming years will require a degree of state support, which has been effectively non-existent since the plug-in car grant was axed in 2022.
Asked what sort of support she would like to see, Jackson said: “I’m not going to go into whether it’s tariffs or whether it’s incentives – I don’t know what it is, and I don’t want to enter that debate at the moment, because there are many discussions going on, and I’m not part of those discussions specifically for the UK. But I think it’s obvious that what we’re looking for is something to stimulate the market.”
Other industry bosses who have advocated for government support of EV sales include former VW Group UK managing director Alex Smith, who said last year he supports “well-targeted, specific and realistic incentives to signal that decarbonisation of road transportation is the aim and that battery-electric vehicles are a very, very significant tool in achieving that”.
