The inflation-adjusted Skoda at £8000 is the same as the Sandero but the latter is a far better car than those noisy rear engined things. There might be a gap left for the Chinese to fill?

Perhaps, but I would rather we don't give them any more of our money.

I think the powers that be are doing this to push the plebs back onto public transport so that the well-heeled don't have to share the roads with them and thus have nice peaceful journeys - .

The best antidote to elaborate conspiracy theories is Occam's Razor. There must be a simpler and more rational explanation, even if you believe that the theory might work ?

So what is it then if it's a simple, 'rational' explanation? I never said it was 'a conspiracy' - it's more like that one government gets a bad idea (or one that gives them and their financial supporterd more power) and others copy them under the pretence of 'saving the planet'.

Like with the Pandemic, the media have egged them on and done little research to back up their own mostly sensationalist / scaremongering articles, with each side pushing the other towards more stringent rules out of fear of being seen as 'behind the curve' whilst ignoring the obvious effects of rapid and significant changes on society.

There's not enough money within the pockets of the rich to furnish lavish subsidies fot most of us to buy and EV and home charger (not just the low numbers [in comparison to ICE] who buy them now), and if govenrments tried to do this, most of the ealthiest would just move themselves or their money abroad.

As the video from Carwow said, many manufacturers have ditched their micro and even supermini ICE cars for EV only, which are - even with government subsidies, vastly more expensive than their ICE equivalent and have a battery range that is often less than a third of the former.

Governments already borrow WAY too much money, and thus going that way to facilitate a rapid change to EVs and instituting 'safety measures'will be a waste of money and will further contribute to the decline of nations as they become yet more indebted. That an the positive effect in reducing serious injuries and deaths on the road will be far less than those measures taken 10-30 years ago precisely because of those previous measures/tech.

There's no way to have no injuries or deaths without completely autonymous vehciles, and as we've seen, that tech is not good enough and IMHO many deacades away from being perfected to be used across the board.

The problem is that we get people who are too risk averse combined with doing things for short term headlines to placate the media and (worse still) naive and gullible activists on social media and others who wish to manipulate them for their own personal (power) and financial (manufacurers of X 'green' tech, for example) gain. Or to placate their spouse...