A space to charge electric vehicles in London, UK
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CEO of leading automotive retailer Pendragon has acknowledged the challenges facing the electric vehicle sector, but believes adoption rates will increase in the future.
Speaking to CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” on Wednesday, Bill Berman said the transmission engines needed to be changed and described himself as “a big fan of electric vehicles.”
“I’m also a big fan of hydrogen; I think it has a role to play and I think it will start to increase a little bit more in the next few years,” he said. “People’s hesitation … around electricity is multifaceted,” he added.
“First of all, it’s unknown: no one ever drives an electric car, so there’s a lot of uncertainty that goes along with it,” Berman said, alluding to the fact that many people have yet to get behind the wheel of ‘an EV.
“There’s scope anxiety that most consumers shout at. Even though … most consumers drive less than 50 miles a day, knowing it can’t be easily refueled raises doubts.”
Autonomy anxiety refers to the idea that electric vehicles are not able to undertake long journeys without running out of load and getting stuck. To solve this, it will be necessary to develop a sufficient load infrastructure in the coming years.
Up to this point, Berman explained how, in his opinion, there were challenges related to where a vehicle could be loaded. “Most homes are not equipped with electricity supply, most office buildings do not have them,” he said.
“It’s kind of a proverbial ‘chicken and egg’, but as more electric vehicles are sold and more infrastructure is put in (whether in North America, Europe or the UK), I think adoption rates will go up.” .
It seems that change is taking place on the horizon in terms of the types of vehicles that people use. The UK, for example, has set plans to move away from the internal combustion engine and develop a zero net transport sector by 2050.
It wants to stop the sale of new diesel and petrol cars and vans by 2030 and demand, from 2035, that all new cars and vans have zero emissions.
Elsewhere, the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, aims to reduce CO2 emissions from cars and vans by 100% by 2035.
As technology develops and environmental concerns grow, the automotive industry seems poised for some significant changes in the coming years.
In his interview with CNBC, Berman tried to get an idea of how this might work. “I think people will adopt … alternative modes of transportation,” he said.
“I think people will adopt different ways of moving and moving around, as well as different propulsion systems … whether it’s electric, hydrogen.”
“At some point on the road there will be autonomous vehicles,” he said. “And, you know, you could call a pod to pick you up, Uber-esque and … take you to the market every day.”
Pendragon, based in the UK and listed on the London Stock Exchange, announced an underlying pre-tax profit of £ 35.1 million ($ 48.55 million) on Wednesday during the first half of the year. This compares to a loss of £ 31 million during the first half of the year 2020.