The Zero Emission Vehicle Mandate is being changed to support the industry’s upgrade to EVs. Measures will increase flexibility for manufacturers up to 2030, allow hybrid cars to be sold until 2035, and even exempt supercar brands from the targets.
The updated ZEV Mandate will ensure flexibilities support manufacturers by maintaining the existing phase-out dates and headline trajectories, extending the ability to borrow in 2024-26 to enable repayment through to 2030, extending the current ability to transfer non-ZEVs to ZEVs from 2024-26 out to 2029.
Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, said: “Global trade is being transformed so we must go further and faster in reshaping our economy and our country through our Plan for Change. I am determined to back British brilliance.
“Now more than ever UK businesses and working people need a government that steps up, not stands aside. That means action, not words. So today I am announcing bold changes to the way we support our car industry.
“This will help ensure home-grown firms can export British cars built by British workers around the world and the industry can look forward with confidence, as well as back with pride. And it will boost growth that puts money in working people’s pockets, the first priority of our Plan for Change.”
The measures will also exempt small and micro-volume manufacturers – supercar brands including McLaren and Aston Martin – from the Mandate targets.
ICE Vans will be allowed to be sold until 2035, alongside full hybrids and plug-in hybrid vans.
Mike Hawes, SMMT CEO, said: “The government has rightly listened to industry, responded quickly to global dynamics and recognised the intense pressure manufacturers are under.
“Industry remains committed to decarbonising road transport but the ZEV Mandate targets are incredibly challenging, especially with a paucity of consumer demand and geopolitical upheaval. Growing EV demand to the levels needed still requires equally bold fiscal incentives, however, to give motorists full confidence to switch.”
“We await full details of the regulatory amendments but, given the potentially severe headwinds facing manufacturers following the introduction of US tariffs, greater action will almost certainly be needed to safeguard our industry’s competitiveness.”