In Confidence: Who will grasp the EV nettle?

‘Benn, Foot, Thatcher – whatever your politics, you can’t help but look back and feel that these were figures who absolutely believed in what they were trying to achieve. I’m not sure we see much evidence of that now, certainly in the leadership.’

Car company bosses don’t normally volunteer political views off-the-cuff, but Head of Polestar UK Jonathan Goodman’s hackles were raised in bafflement at Government indifference in the face of the need to drive the electric transition to a conclusion.

‘The point is, in the 1980s and 1990s we had conviction politicians. They knew where they wanted to be and set out a proposal for how to get there,’ he continued. ‘There’s no way they’d have set a 2030 or 2035 date for the end of the sale of new combustion-engined cars and sat back and waited for it to happen – they’d understand that they needed to make it happen. If you want to change consumer behaviour you need to force it, not suggest it.’