The UK is at risk of falling behind in the shift away from the combustion engine toward electric cars and could end up as a minor player in automaking.
This week, mostly UK-based electric-van startup Arrival announced its CEO and president were stepping down.
Last week, the CEO of Britain’s biggest automaker Jaguar Land Rover, Thierry Bollore, resigned after making little headway on an all-electric shift announced almost two years ago.
And Britishvolt, the company thought to be the country’s best hope for a homegrown EV battery maker, is struggling to stay afloat.
It’s a bleak picture in stark contrast with the U.S., where car and battery manufacturers are being wooed with billions of dollars as President Joe Biden challenges China’s dominance of the global EV supply chain.
That effort has gotten the attention of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron, who are hatching plans to promote and protect their automakers and suppliers.