Speaking in the wake of major cities, including London and Paris, indicating they could ban diesel cars from built-up areas, Robertson cautioned that the 2020 target of 95g/km of CO2 for all car makers, plus the introduction of Euro 6 legislation, had already placed a major burden on car makers.
“We need to make sure there is careful consideration in any legislation,” said Robertson. “The temptation for legislators is to set an ambitious target, but there has to be a clear path to how we reach those targets, otherwise everyone suffers.
“To reach the 95g/km target we need pure electric vehicles, but to sell pure electric vehicles we need governments to provide the infrastructure and to incentivise the technology. All that takes time, not two or three years.”