Fair to say, there has been lots of chopping and changing from various Government administrations in recent years over precisely when the sale of brand new petrol and diesel cars will be banned in the UK. Is it 2030? Is it 2035? Well, at last, Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Government has clarified its stance on the timescales involved, and provided a bit of relief for under-pressure carmakers in the UK in the process.
The changes to the terms of the UK’s Zero Emissions Vehicle (ZEV) Mandate has come about as a result of a consultation on the matter by the Department for Transport (DfT), which launched in December 2024 and concluded in February 2025.
The headline points of the latest version of the ZEV Mandate are as follows:
- Sales of brand new cars powered solely by petrol and diesel will be banned in 2030.
- The sale of hybrid cars is to be allowed to continue until 2035.
- Vans with petrol and diesel engines are allowed to be sold until 2035, alongside hybrid LCVs (Light Commercial Vehicles).
- Small manufacturers (firms producing fewer than 2,500 cars per year for the UK market) are to be exempt from the ban.
- The means by which manufacturers meet EV sales targets is to be amended, allowing more flexibility and easing pressure.
- Fines to manufacturers not selling a sufficient proportion of EVs will be reduced.
Previously, the ZEV Mandate required manufacturers to ensure 22% of their car sales were EVs last year, increasing to 28% this year, while van manufacturers faced a target of 10% last year, rising to 16% this year. In both cases, the requirement would rise each year until the completion of the mandate. Some manufacturers were struggling to meet these targets because public demand for EVs had not risen as sharply as expected.
And so it’ll come as good news that as part of the latest changes to the mandate, the Government has allowed carmakers to balance annual targets against one another by selling a higher proportion of EVs in the later years of the mandate, once demand for EVs has caught up with projections.
The fines for vehicle manufacturers that fail to meet EV sales targets have been reduced from £15,000 to £12,000 per car (equating to 20%), and from £18,000 to £15,000 per van (equating to 18%). According to the DfT, however, the changes to the way these targets are implemented will result in very few manufacturers incurring charges.
These changes are announced hot on the heels of global economic turmoil caused by the American Government's widespread import tariffs, with the UK’s automotive sector facing a 25% tariff on vehicles exported to the US, on top of a 10% blanket tariff on all goods imported from the UK to the US.
