The UK’s electric vehicle (EV) sales target could be lowered after the government launched a review following pressure from carmakers.
Currently, manufacturers must ensure that a percentage of the cars they sell each year are zero emissions, with the target increasing each year until it reaches 80% by 2030.
The government has now said it is considering reducing that figure to 50% of all sales by the end of the decade, on which it will consult until the end of October.
Environmental groups have argued that watering down the target undermines the UK’s long-term climate goals.
Under the current policy, known as the ZEV mandate, the percentage of new car sales that must be electric vehicles increases each year, from 33% in 2026 to reach 80% in 2030. It started at 22% in 2024.
An outright ban on selling purely petrol or diesel cars will remain in place after 2030, something Labor promised in its election manifesto.
However, the changes now being consulted on could allow carmakers to sell more hybrid vehicles as a proportion of total UK sales.
That means if the government reduces pure electricity sales targets to 50%, the other 50% would have to be hybrid.
Another option would be to keep the target at 80%, but with flexibility for automakers until 2034.
A longer deadline to phase out sales of new hybrids until 2035 would also be maintained.
The sales policy for electric vehicles has already changed a lot over the years.
Boris Johnson first announced a ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel vehicles by 2030 when he was prime minister, and then his successor, Rishi Sunak, delayed it until 2035.
Sunak also introduced more gradual targets for electric vehicle sales under the ZEV mandate.
Labor has previously accused previous Conservative governments of “changing targets on phase-out dates”.
It comes after motor industry figures urged ministers to soften the targets, arguing that demand for electric vehicles is not yet high enough and that meeting them is costing manufacturers too much money.
This is despite electric cars accounting for a quarter of total UK sales during the first seven months of the year, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).
The Climate Change Committee, which advises the government, has said switching from diesel and petrol engines to electric vehicles will be the most effective way to reduce carbon emissions over the next decade.
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said on Friday: “It is right that we keep the targets under review to ensure they are practical and support British industry.
“The end goal hasn’t changed, but we need to take businesses with us on the journey, and that’s exactly what we’re doing today, making sure the industry has the opportunity to shape how we get there.”
Lisa Brankin, managing director of Ford of Britain, welcomed the government’s “willingness to listen” to carmakers, adding: “It is vital to give the industry and customers the certainty we need.”
Mike Hawes, head of the SMMT, the car industry’s main lobby group, added that the ZEV mandate was “conceived under very different conditions”.
He called the review “a timely opportunity to fine-tune the transition so it works for everyone.”
Electric car advocates and climate groups criticized the move.
Tanya Sinclair, head of industry group Electric Vehicles UK, criticized the government for “asking whether we should expand the availability of polluting vehicles in the middle of the hottest summer on record”.
The Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, a think tank, estimated that reducing the EV sales target to 50% would mean 2.6 million fewer electric cars on the roads by 2035.
Gurjeet Grewal, head of Octopus Electric Vehicles, added that weakening the mandate would “send exactly the wrong signal, just as electric vehicles are becoming some of the best value cars on the roads.”
The rapid rise in oil prices caused by the Iran war has also caused interest in electric cars to skyrocket around the world as a measure of consumer spending.
The Green Alliance said softening the targets would “lock in avoidable emissions while undermining the certainty manufacturers need to invest”.
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