Don’t depend on EV incentives – Polestar chief

Electric vehicle uptake shouldn’t depend on government support, Polestar chief operating officer Jonathan Goodman says.

In a stand contrary to what many other EV makers and advocates say, Goodman reckons EVs are coming anyway and shouldn’t depend on incentives as these can later be removed and the business case no long stacks up, Stuff reports.

Goodman considers EV charging, for instance, might attract new buyers. But once charging has to be paid for it becomes too dear to fund, so the incentive is gone, the cost of ownership goes up, and the consumer pays.

He says it must be a business case that works and allows the retailer to make money too.

Goodman also sees the EV as a chance to start the process of turning to more efficient and environmentally friendly power generation – already achieved in large part in New Zealand but not in Australia where coal is still heavily used to produce electricity.

“Australia is similar to China in that sense, with non-renewable energy,” Goodman says about how power is generated.

“But, if you build the mass of electric vehicles, that takes care of the tailpipe emissions, then you put pressure on the energy companies to generate cleaner energy, and at that point, you’ve taken care of both sides of the equation.”

Polestar is the Volvo Cars performance company and brand, based in Sweden, and develops EVs.

It’s all-electric Polestar 2 is due to go on sale in 2020.