Electric vehicle sales targets could be cut after pressure from car makers
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- UK government reviewing EV sales targets after car-maker pressure, considering cutting the 2030 goal from 80% to as low as 50% of new car sales
- Consultation runs until late October; the 2030 ban on selling purely petrol or diesel cars will remain in place under the ZEV mandate
- Alternative option keeps the 80% target but extends compliance flexibility for manufacturers out to 2034, with a separate hybrid phase-out deadline remaining at 2035
- Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said "the end goal hasn't changed" but targets must be "practical and back British industry"
- SMMT chief Mike Hawes called the review "a timely opportunity to adjust the transition" since the mandate was "conceived under vastly different conditions"
- Environmental groups including Green Alliance, Electric Vehicles UK and Octopus Electric Vehicles criticised weakening the mandate, with Tanya Sinclair noting it would extend "the availability of polluting vehicles amid our hottest summer on record"
Why it matters: Environmental and EV-industry stakeholders argue weakening the mandate during the UK's hottest summer on record would lock in avoidable emissions and undermine the investment certainty manufacturers themselves claim to need, while car makers gain a direct channel to reshape the transition timeline through a consultation running until late October.
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