The car industry’s reaction to the UK’s new zero-emission vehicle mandate hasn’t been positive, not least as some makers are unable to comply – and here we can hear echoes from early-1970s America. Americans had become acutely aware of environmental damage post-war, primarily through the smog hanging over many major cities, and so it became a key issue in the 1968 US presidential election.
No matter how much we spend and how many people we assign to the task, we do not think we can do it by 1975. “The American automobile industry is now beginning a crucial effort to turn back the rising tide of imported cars. If we are compelled by hasty and ill-considered legislation to raise our prices more than is necessary to achieve clean air, the struggle against imports could be lost.