Manufacturers are 'exploiting EV transition to maximise profits'

Manufacturers have been accused of exploiting EV transition to maximise profits and reneging on contract agreements at the last minute by fleet decision-makers at the Fleet200 Strategy Network meeting in September.

“My company has more than 300 cars, more than 500 vans, 50 trucks and 200 mopeds. Each one presents a decarbonisation challenge and the frustration I have is trying to assess the total cost of ownership for each. It’s changing every day, cost consistency is impossible. We were looking at taking on an EV removal truck. It would’ve been a game-changer, but our costs on it have increased three-fold.”

“It’s very well having a green vision for the future of transport, but unless manufacturers are incentivised to play their part, we won’t collectively be able to achieve it.”

“I see a similarity to the truck cartel that was exposed several years ago*, with manufacturers creating a monopoly on pricing opportunity. Their approach is not to save the planet, but ‘how much money we can make’ on the back of government telling us we need to change to EVs. 

“Newer technologies cost more than established. And manufacturers aren’t honouring the costs we’ve agreed with them at order. When it gets to delivery they say the cost has gone up 10-15%. One said they’d seen an increase on chassis from 2 – 6%. I objected to paying and they said fine, they had another customer who is desperation was willing to pay the increase.”

“A manufacturer cancelled an order for 50 vehicles last week because they couldn’t supply on the price we’d agreed. Or they’re downgrading the vehicle spec because they can’t get the components. Contracts are not being honoured.”

“Our transition to EV is geared around switching the easy vehicles first, using telematics data to ensure we can charge at 100% or 80-plus percent on operations. Only 6% of my fleet could switch to EV if I had the charging infrastructure. But I would pay three times more on running costs to charge on electric than I am using diesel in a removal truck. I can’t go to my CFO with that.”