Tesla boss Elon Musk is wrong to think a £25k electric car is pointless

Younger readers may find this hard to believe, but even two or three decades back, people in modestly paid jobs had the wedge to buy affordable homes. And they’d still have enough left over to pay for reasonably priced British Grand Prix tickets. And a budget of around £1 a day really could cover the cost of car insurance plus road tax (Vehicle Excise Duty) on their humble cars.  

My, how things have changed. Many of today’s youngsters seeking to purchase ‘places of their own’ are forced to live in DIY motorhomes equipped with bench-like beds, iffy showers, pongy portaloos and not much else. Exorbitantly priced entry tickets and parking fees are the new norm at Formula One weekends, and as for car insurance, I’ve long argued that it’s been the greatest rip-off of the modern motoring age, with petrol and diesel pumps at motorway service stations not far behind, along with every public charging point I’ve ever used.

But as quietly confirmed in last week’s Budget, VED prices will soon go through the roof. Admittedly from a low base, a 1,000 per cent rise will be imposed on some unsuspecting motorists. For others, the percentage increase will be lower at ‘only’ 100 per cent – but they’ll still end up paying £5,490 for the first year. That’s £457.50 a month. Also, since Government-sponsored and promoted motoring-related price hikes of between 100 and 1,000 per cent are now for real, how long before the toughest unions start demanding wage rises of similar magnitude for their members? 

On the vehicle-manufacturing front, I heard worrying noises last week. Volkswagen did the unthinkable by announcing a 60 per cent plummet in profits and possible closure of plants (plural) in Germany and elsewhere. Something to do with the fact that Passat (born 1973), Golf (1974) and Polo (1975) are being deprioritised to make way for less desirable ID models? The ID. Buzz is certainly the only one that appeals to me.

Over at Jaguar, I reckon recent developments are even more worrying. Its ongoing “reimagining” and “resetting” processes have led the company to admit in recent days that from this month “new Jaguar sales will come to an end”, albeit with the promise of at least one factory-fresh model coming in 2026. With this in mind, for the next year or two, shouldn’t Jaguar stop calling itself a vehicle manufacturer and instead refer to itself as a used car dealer? I’m only asking. 

And I’m telling Tesla’s Elon Musk that he’s plain wrong when he says “I think having a regular £25k model is pointless”. Go on, admit it, Elon – you’re simply unable to compete with world-beating electric cars such as the sub-£23,000 Citroen e-C3 and Renault 5.

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