- The UK government will remain committed to the 2030 ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars, which was confirmed after a roundtable discussion between Transport Secretary Louise Haigh, Business and Trade Secretary Jonathan Reynolds, and several players in the EV industry yesterday.
- Those attending the discussion included the SMMT, Tesla, Nissan, Ford, Volkswagen Group, Stellantis, BMW, Toyota, ChargeUK, and the BVRLA.
- From this meeting, the government will set out further details on the ZEV mandate ‘in due course’ – after Haigh previously said that some ‘flexibilities’ to the mandate were being considered, whilst keeping the 2030 deadline.
The UK’s 2030 EV mandate remains
The roundtable discussion came after the government met Nissan earlier in the week, and confirms that the 2030 ICE ban, as outlined in Labour’s manifesto, is here to stay. It also comes after 14 organisations signed a joint letter, urging the Transport Secretary to maintain the current deadlines of the ZEV mandate.
The recent autumn budget already took a number of steps which should help drive EV adoption. Some of these steps included £2 billion worth of funding allocated to the UK automotive manufacturing industry, an additional £200 million to support the rollout of public charging, and the continuation of EV Benefit-in-Kind incentives. We’ll be watching to see what further tweaks are made to the ZEV mandate, after Wednesday’s significant meeting.
A Government spokesperson commented on the meeting:
“Ministers from across Government have met with automotive sector and industry representatives to discuss the transition to electric vehicles, and how the Government can support continued growth of the sector. Recognising the global challenges the industry has been facing, ministers underlined the Government’s commitment to working constructively and in close partnership with the sector as we support the transition to electric vehicles by 2030. The UK automotive sector now has the fastest growth of zero emission vehicles of any major European market, and we’re providing more than £2.3 billion to support industry and consumers in making the switch, with 57 new public electric vehicle chargers added on average each day.”
ChargeUK CEO, Vicky Read, added:
“The charging industry is a UK growth story, we are delivering the vital infrastructure necessary for the EV transition at pace and scale. ChargeUK members are putting a new charge point in the ground every 25 minutes on average, and they are committed to invest over £6 billion up to 2030 ensuring we stay ahead of demand. That progress – building an entire industry practically from scratch over 10 years – was acknowledged by government this afternoon and everyone is agreed that uncertainty is the enemy of the EV transition and threatens investment on all sides. We will study the forthcoming consultation closely and continue to make the case to retain what we already have – a strong ZEV mandate that works.”
