EVs need more aid to retire fossil-fuel cars, supplier says

Electric-vehicle subsidies must be reintroduced in countries that have scrapped them if Europe wants to meet its targets for phasing out combustion-engine cars, U.K. supplier Dowlais Group said.

Cooling demand for battery-powered cars is threatening plans to end the sale of new vehicles with a combustion engine by 2030 in the U.K. and five years later in the European Union, CEO Liam Butterworth said on Aug. 13.

“If the regulations are going to stay as they are, then absolutely there will need to be some kind of subsidies to support” automakers, Butterworth said in an interview for Dowlais’ first-half results.

Automakers and their suppliers are grappling with a slump in EV demand after countries including Germany and Sweden scrapped or lowered aid for the technology.

Companies including Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen Group have since delayed or watered down their rollout plans.

Dowlais’ customers — which include Ford Motor and General Motors — have pushed back deliveries of electric powertrains, the CEO said, adding that the surprise removal of subsidies in Germany at the end of last year has hurt demand.

“There is a lot of suppliers who have significantly over-invested” in EV technologies, Butterworth said, adding that there are “a lot of challenging discussions going on” with automakers about how that discrepancy will be handled.

As a result of the slowdown, the company said Tuesday it now expects adjusted revenue to fall by a mid- to high-single digit percentage this year.

Separately, the supplier that was spun out of aerospace engineer Melrose Industries has launched a strategic review of its powder metallurgy business that could result in a sale.