UK Plans New Measure to Boost EV Sales, Transport Secretary Says
Singer Akon's Failed Futuristic City in Senegal Ends Up a $1 Billion Resort
Why Did Cars Get So Hard to See Out Of?
Can Americans Just Stop Building New Highways?
How German Cities Are Rethinking Women's Safety — With Taxis
Philadelphia Trash Piles Up as Garbage Workers' Strike Drags On
Speaking on Sunday, Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander confirmed she will be announcing new measures to boost sales of EVs this week but declined to directly address reports in the Telegraph and the Times that the incentives will include up to £700 million ($948 million) in new subsidies and grants to buyers to help offset costs.
'We will be making it cheaper for those who do want to make the switch to electric vehicles,' she told the BBC in an interview.
As part of those efforts, Alexander's office on Sunday announced plans to invest £63 million in building charging points at homes and logistics depots around the UK, including funds for charging points at residences without driveways. Her department also outlined a £2.5 billion program to support automakers in the transition to zero-emission vehicle manufacturing.
The investments are part of the government's efforts to boost new sales of EVs, which are on average more than twice as expensive as their petrol counterparts. The UK is Europe's biggest EV market and the government has set a 2030 deadline to fully phase out sales of petrol- and diesel-powered automobiles and a 2035 cutoff for hybrids.
Sales statistics show automakers are falling short of government-mandated targets to increase the proportion of EVs sold ahead of those deadlines. Automakers have blamed the shortfall on consumer anxieties about the high cost of EVs and lack of charging stations.
Trump's Cuts Are Making Federal Data Disappear
'Our Goal Is to Get Their Money': Inside a Firm Charged With Scamming Writers for Millions
Soccer Players Are Being Seriously Overworked
Will Trade War Make South India the Next Manufacturing Hub?
Trade War? No Problem—If You Run a Trade School
©2025 Bloomberg L.P.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
29 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Retreat from Afghanistan began as a farce, then it was a scandal, now it's a cover-up
The retreat from Afghanistan during the Taliban takeover in 2021 began as a farce, then it was a scandal and now it's a shoddy cover-up. The farce was when the then foreign secretary Dominic Raab remained on his holiday sunbed in Crete rather than return to work during the height of the evacuation crisis. Politics latest: It was a scandal because around 200 people were killed in the chaos, with distressing pictures of terrified Afghans clinging to the wings of moving aeroplanes at Kabul airport. And now we learn that in a massive cover-up, the Tory government of Rishi Sunak to gag the media from reporting a data breach that put 20,000 Afghans in danger. Over the years, superinjunctions granted by UK courts have been condemned for enabling celebrities and sports stars to cover-up extra-marital affairs, drug-taking and other secrets. The superinjunction granted to the government in 2023 to conceal a secret scheme to relocate Afghan nationals was obviously entirely different and no doubt sought for honourable motives. But it was a cover-up nonetheless and not so honourable because it hid a data blunder exposing names and contact details of 18,000 people who had applied for asylum in the UK under a resettlement scheme. The scheme had been set up by the government in 2021 to provide asylum for people who had worked with the UK armed forces and could be at risk of Taliban reprisals for working with western forces. In the Commons, the current defence secretary, John Healey, said it was "deeply uncomfortable" to be prevented from reporting the data breach blunder to MPs until now. The ministers involved in seeking the gagging order were the former defence secretary Ben Wallace and the then armed forces minister James Heappey, he said. But while most MPs welcomed Mr Healey's apology, it's probably fair to say that if it hadn't been for tenacious campaigning by media organisations the superinjunction might not have been lifted by the High Court. One Tory MP, Mark Pritchard, accused the defence secretary of "wriggling" and said: "The fact is that he is justifying this superinjunction and not telling parliament, the press, the public and, unbelievably, the Afghans who were potentially in harm's way." And, among a number of individual cases highlighted by MPs, Liberal Democrat Calum Miller told MPs that "in the chaos of withdrawal" a constituent who left Afghanistan was promised by British officials that his pregnant wife could follow him. "Two years later, we have still not kept that promise," said Mr Miller. "My constituent's wife and child continue to move around in Afghanistan to evade the Taliban and my constituent is so desperate that he is talking about returning to Afghanistan - despite the risk to him - to be reunited with them." Reform UK's Zia Yusuf hit out at the Tory government's asylum policy, writing on X: "24k Afghans secretly granted asylum, costing British taxpayers up to £7bn. "The government covered it up. Who was in government? Home secretary: Suella Braverman. Immigration minister: Robert Jenrick." Later, Mr Healey was asked on LBC's News Agents podcast if the official responsible for the data breach is still employed by the government. "They are no longer doing the same job on the Afghan brief," he replied. Hmm. That suggests the person hasn't been fired, which will alarm those MPs who remain extremely concerned about this whole fiasco. Asked whether he would have taken out the superinjunction if he had been defence secretary in 2023, he replied: "Very, very unlikely." But when he was asked if he could rule out the use of superinjunctions by the Ministry of Defence in the future, Mr Healey said: "Well, you can never say never." So while Mr Healey will obviously be determined to avoid a farce in future, it appears that the threat of another Ministry of Defence cover-up in future hasn't gone away.
New York Times
29 minutes ago
- New York Times
How Much Military Aid Has the U.S. Given to Ukraine? Here's What to Know.
When President Trump returned to office, he declined to announce new aid to Ukraine, and showed outright hostility to the country's president in a televised appearance at the White House. But Mr. Trump signaled a major shift this week when he announced a plan to sell weapons to NATO countries, which would then pass them along to Ukraine in its war against Russian forces. After Russia launched the war in 2022, the Biden administration sent Ukraine $33.8 billion worth of weapons from the Pentagon's stockpile, and another $33.2 billion in funds to help the country buy additional arms and hardware from the American defense industry. But the United States began sending military support to Ukraine even before that. What are the different types of military aid? To get U.S. arms to Ukraine quickly, the Pentagon has taken them out of its own stockpile and transported them to the country's border under a program called the presidential drawdown authority. Congress funds that effort by giving the Pentagon money to purchase replacements. On a slightly longer timeline, the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative sends U.S. taxpayer money to Kyiv so that it can purchase goods directly from American defense firms. Those orders can take months or even years to be delivered, and are intended to offer a reliable supply of certain munitions into the future. Mr. Trump announced a third way this week: The United States would sell arms to European nations, which would ship them to Ukraine or use them to replace weapons they send to the country from their existing stocks. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Yahoo
40 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trump Announces 30 Percent Duties on EU, Mexico
U.S. President Donald Trump revealed he isn't taking the weekend off as he released two open letters to prominent American trading partners informing them of steep new duty rates. On Saturday, the commander in chief took to Truth Social to post his missives to Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, telling both that the countries they represent will face 30 percent duties on goods across the board beginning Aug. 1. More from WWD Oleksandr Usyk Readies for Daniel Dubois Fight With Aid From Ukrainian Designer US-Brazil Trade Battle Puts Shoe Firms in the Middle of the Crossfire Brunello Cucinelli Expects Modest Profit Growth in 2025, Sees Sales Up 10 Percent in 2026 After Positive H1 In his letter to Sheinbaum, Trump reinvigorated earlier claims that Mexico has aided in the 'pouring' of drugs like fentanyl into the U.S. market and failed to control the activities of criminal cartels. 'Mexico has been helping me secure the border, but, what Mexico has done, is not enough,' he wrote. The colloquial style of the communication underscored Trump's familiar relationship with Sheinbaum, with whom he has been negotiating for months. As in previous letters, Trump stated that the new duty rate excludes already established sectoral tariffs, and he wrote that transshipment or retaliatory duties will result in stacked taxes to Mexican imports. The letter did not mention whether U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement-covered products would be exempt from the new tariffs, though a White House spokesperson told Politico Friday that Canada's USMCA-compliant products would remain duty-free under the trade agreement, which is due to be revisited in July 2026. The tenor of Trump's letter to von der Leyen was different, belying a frustration that the 27-member European trade bloc and the U.S. have not been able to reach a consensus about the future of their trade relationship. 'We have had years to discuss our trading relationship with the European Union, and have concluded that we must move away from these long-term, large, and persistent, trade deficits, engendered by your tariff, and non-tariff, policies and trade barriers,' the president wrote. He struck a more threatening tone as he addressed the European leader, declaring, 'The European Union will allow complete, open market access to the United States, with no tariff being charged to us, in an attempt to reduce the large trade deficit.' As in previous communications with world leaders, Trump emphasized that if the trade bloc retaliates with its own duties, its tariff rate only stands to grow. The 30 percent tariff comes as a surprise given that American officials, like U.S. Trade Representative Ambassador Jamieson Greer, have been negotiating ceaselessly in recent weeks with members of the European Commission. A principle agreement presented to Trump last week involved the levying of 10 percent duties, which the trade bloc said would cause major pain to exporters. Reportedly, von der Leyen was informed of the contents of the president's letter in advance of its social media debut. 'A 30 percent tariff on EU exports would hurt businesses, consumers and patients on both sides of the Atlantic,' she wrote on Twitter shortly after the announcement. 'We will continue working toward an agreement by Aug. 1. At the same time, we are ready to safeguard EU interests on the basis of proportionate countermeasures.' Best of WWD Pandemic Has Stoked Appetite for French Luxury, Survey Finds U.S. Sets Strategic Vision for China Trade Policy Furmark's Farm-to-Shopfloor Tracing Tags Set for International Debut Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
