The government has been urged not to scrap new rules for millions of drivers in the UK, which are coming from 2030. EVA England has written an open letter to Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander, urging the Government to keep the 2030 ZEV Mandate target at 80% of total sales.
EVA England Warns Against Weakening the Mandate
The body has urged the Labour Party government not to water down its new petrol and diesel 2030 ban rules. Vicky Edmunds, CEO at EVA England warned that weakening the ZEV Mandate sends the wrong signal to drivers, the industry and investors. She also requested an urgent meeting with Alexander to discuss the mandate.
Edmonds said: “Drivers need certainty. They need confidence that the cars they are being asked to buy are the right choice, and that means stopping the very public back and forth arguments over the ZEV mandate and maintaining it as it is: as a strong and stable policy backbone for the transition.
“UK drivers are not anti-EV: many are already considering electric cars as they would any major household purchase, and are ready to switch where the price, charging and practical fundamentals are right.
“Those who have switched overwhelmingly support the move, with EVA England research showing that 95% of EV drivers would not go back to petrol or diesel.”
Government Response on ZEV Mandate Progress
In a government update earlier this year, Labour said: “Last year, over 381,000 electric cars were sold in the UK – more than any country in Europe, and the third highest number of any country in the world.
"The British public is embracing the move to electric vehicles, benefitting from the cheaper running costs, cleaner air and quieter neighbourhoods that these vehicles bring. Our domestic vehicle manufacturing industry – an industry that is critical to the UK economy – is embracing this change and rising to the challenge.
"Collectively, since the announcement of the ZEV Mandate, manufacturers have committed to investing over £20 billion in UK vehicle manufacturing: designing new vehicles, developing new technologies, and ultimately pivoting facilities and supply chains away from fossil-fuelled cars to those running on technologies of the future.”
In 2024, the first year of the Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) Mandate, vehicle manufacturers rose to the challenge, achieving a compliance rate of 24.3% for the year – exceeding the 22% target. We recognise the van market faced some challenges and fell slightly short of the ZEV Mandate trajectory, reaching a compliance rate of 9.3% – just below the 10% target.
Labour added: “The government recognises the need to be bold and ambitious to meet our climate change goals, while equally understanding the wider pressures that are being faced by industry. As such, this response contains policy decisions that carefully consider these challenges.”
