Why no one wants a Ford Fiesta anymore

The world of business has long been creative with feeble excuses. Even so, the explanation given by Tim Slatter, chairman of Ford in Britain, for slashing 1,300 jobs in the UK, 1,000 of them in product development, does take the biscuit. The company is moving towards a wholly electric fleet of cars by the end of the decade, he says, and as they are simpler cars they will need less product development.

Really? Electric cars may have fewer moving parts than their petrol equivalents and in that sense are less complicated. But they are also relatively novel, especially from a mass-market perspective. There are a great number of technological problems which have to be overcome before they can fulfil the same function as petrol and diesel cars. Their range is still far too short, they still take too long to recharge, they are far too pricey to buy. Their batteries are too heavy and bulky, and there are many issues to sort out regarding the degradation of batteries over time.