The impact – and often then despair – surprise regulatory announcements have on those running car companies was laid bare earlier this month by Ford Model E COO Marin Gjaja.
While he was in the air from Dearborn to Slovenia for the launch of the new Ford Explorer, the European Commission had announced plans to impose tariffs on Chinese electric cars and less than 48 hours later the Labour party in the UK, widely expected to win the 4 July election, had announced it would bring back a ban of the sale of non-electric cars by 2030.
“We make 15-year capital bets and we’re sitting here with profound changes made in the last 48 hours,” Gjaja told me.
