Foot off the EV Pedal

Travel Tuesday: Ivory Coast, also known as C?te d'Ivoire?

A lesser known fact about Ivory Coast is that it is home to the world's largest church, the Basilica of Our Lady of Peace in Yamoussoukro, which is even bigger than St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City. This massive church was built by the country's former president, Félix Houphou?t-Boigny, as a symbol of peace and unity.?

GDP $70 billion?

Biggest Export? Cocoa beans, raw cashew nuts, palm oil?

Biggest Trading Partners Mali, Switzerland, the Netherlands, US, France?

Political System Presidential representative democratic republic. The President is both the head of state and government.?

National Animal Elephant?

Next Election 25 October?

Foot of the EV Pedal

Citing uncertainty, BMW has outlined that it will delay reintroducing EV production at its Oxford Mini plant in a blow to British EV manufacturing.

?The decision now puts the ￡600m upgrade to the Cowley manufacturing facility – which was set to deliver the production of two new EV mini models by next year - into question.

?Their statement said that “given the multiple uncertainties facing the automotive? industry, the BMW Group is currently reviewing the timing for reintroducing battery-electric Mini production in Oxford."

?The move will also mark a blow to the government’s plans of increasing EV production and EV ownership across the UK. This comes against a wider context of the UK’s target to phase out the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030 ahead of ensuing that all cars and vans will have to be 100% zero emission by 2035.

?While the government has pledged to commit ￡2.3 billion in support to UK manufacturers and consumers to transition to zero emission vehicles, it’s clear that many companies see this as lacking in sufficient energy. Indeed its understood that BMW did not accept a ￡60m grant from the government, highlighting how the company considers how the degree of uncertainty outweighs the incentives put forward by government.

?In a statement earlier this year the Transport Secretary Hedi Alexander said that the “previous government caused significant harm to the industry by moving goalposts on phase out dates, creating doubt in the minds of investors and boardrooms and putting at risk the billions of pounds of committed investment in the automotive sector and in the chargepoint sector”.

?Looking at the state of Britian’s EV market more generally, according ZapMap there are some 1.4 million fully electric cars in the UK - roughly 4% of the 35 million cars. While this is a meaningful increase from the 1.2% figure seen in 2021, the rate of increase appears to be showing signs of plateauing.

?Nonetheless, over the course of 2023 around 25% or new cars registered were EVs. While that put the UK ahead of Canada (13%) and the US (9.5%), it ranks well below others including Norway (93%), Sweden (60%) and China (37%).

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Rift Around UN Resolution Indicates Divide over Ukraine

On what marked the third anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, yesterday, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution which reaffirmed the “commitment to the sovereignty, independence, unity, and territorial integrity of Ukraine" while calling Russia an aggressor. While the resolution (sponsored by the EU and Ukraine) may have passed with 93 states voting in favour of it, as many as 18 states voted against it while 65 abstained. According to AP News’ Edith Ledger, the fact that this resolution passed with less support than previous ones shows “some diminished support for Ukraine.”

Perhaps the most notable of those which voted against it was the US, which instead wanted to adopt a rival resolution. It is worth noting that the US proposal omitted any mention of Russia as the aggressor and Ukraine’s territorial integrity, and the position is indicative of the widening gulf between European and US strategy vis-à-vis Ukraine. This gulf has been intensified by President Trump, whose abrupt shift in Washington’s foreign policy appears to sideline Ukraine from negotiations, as we noted yesterday.

Global media outlets are continuing to monitor developments around a potential deal which could see the US access Ukraine’s mineral wealth in return for security guarantees and military aid from Washington.

This follows President Zelensky saying earlier last week that he could not accept Trump’s calls for Ukraine to cede over $500 billion of Ukraine’s mineral wealth to the US. That said, Kyiv previously alluded to giving some access to its mineral resources, and thus Trump’s plans could be considered as a more aggressive iteration on an existing theme.

Speaking yesterday, the US President said that “I am in serious discussions with President Vladimir Putin of Russia concerning the ending of the War, and also major Economic Development transactions which will take place between the United States and Russia” ahead of proclaiming that “talks are proceeding very well!”

While it would be impossible to put a monetary value on Ukraine’s mineral wealth, the country is known to have sizable amounts of lithium, titanium, coal, and uranium deposits in addition to oil and gas.

Continuing on Ukraine, yesterday the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen announced an additional €3.5bn in assistance to Ukraine, bringing the total amount provided from the bloc to €135bn. She also said that Ukraine could join the EU before the end of the decade while calling for the international community to do more to support Kyiv’s defence.