It’s not the right time to introduce new taxes on electric vehicles, according to the boss of Ford UK. The government has admitted ahead of the annual budget that it is planning to announce a new pay per mile scheme for EVs to try and recover some of the losses on fuel duty from drivers switching to electric.
Speaking on the BBC’s Big Bosses podcast, Ford UK boss Lisa Brankin said that she was concerned about the impact of the upcoming budget on EV demand. “We’ve already seen customers putting their orders on hold or cancelling while they wait for the budget,” she revealed. “It’s very concerning, because we feel like we’ve just had the plug-in car grants introduced, which was great, but now we have this. It doesn’t seem like the right thing and it’s certainly not the right time to do it.”
Brankin's comments come just as Ford has announced it had sold out of the electric version of its Puma crossover, which has been the biggest selling car of the year so far in 2025. It was the first car to be awarded the full amount of the government's plug-in vehicle grant, which has meant £3,750 off the list price.
Brankin criticised the government’s budget proposals, saying that they would increase the administrative burden on electric vehicle drivers and create an unequal system. “If the government reviewed everything and said that we’re going to implement this scheme for everybody and we’re going to do it in the same way, then that works. I think calling out electric car drivers and adding that admin burden in the face of fragile demand is just another brake.”
The Ford boss also said that EV demand wasn’t keeping pace with the stringent demands of the zero emission vehicles mandate, which was introduced in 2024. “When that was decided a number of years ago the outlook for demand around electric vehicles was really buoyant, there seemed to be momentum behind electric vehicles,” Brankin explained. “What we’re seeing now is that customer demand is not in line with that ambition. People do want electric cars, but maybe not at the level of ambition that the government has set.”
Electrifying founder Ginny Buckley has also criticised the government’s EV proposals and questioned how the plan would be implemented. “Drivers are being encouraged to go electric, then hit with the threat of new taxes – you can’t drive the EV transition with one foot on the accelerator and the other on the brake. Big questions remain: how will this be monitored? Could it eventually mean mandatory black boxes in our cars? If so, that’s a conversation we need to have now.”
The government is sending mixed messages to car buyers, says Electrifying editor-in-chief Ginny Buckley 
