The impact – and then often despair – that 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, US, to Slovenia for the launch of the new Ford Explorer, the European Commission announced plans to impose tariffs on Chinese electric cars, and less than 48 hours later the Labour party, widely expected to win the UK general election on 4 July, announced it would bring back a ban on 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.