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UK transport secretary Louise Haigh said she was in “listening” mode about the challenges posed by the ZEV Mandate but the government ambitions on ZEV would not be weakened.
Haigh was speaking ahead of a meeting with Nissan today and further talks with the industry on Wednesday.
“There are flexibilities in the current mandate, but we want to work with the manufacturing sector about whether these are working and whether we can address them,” she told LBC radio. “But the level of our ambition and the mandate will not be weakened.”
The ZEV Mandate has come under fire from carmakers and dealers for forcing sales of EV cars.
Almost half of dealers (47%) say that the ZEV Mandate targets should be relaxed, according to Startline’s September Used Car Tracker which questioned 307 consumers and 60 dealers.
52% believe that the market needs more time to electrify. 30% think that manufacturers will end up being fined under the scheme, 28% think the ZEV Mandate targets are too ambitious and 23% think that the targets will be scrapped.
Un the current regime, 22% of the cars sold in the UK have to be electric and this is set to rise to 28% next year.
Carmakers can get around the figure by buying credits or else risk big fines.
Graeme Potts, chief executive of Eden Motor Group, speaking at NFDA’s Driving Digital 2024 talk said the ZEV Mandate is restricting choice for customers:
“As retailers we have a balancing act that is extremely challenging. Environmental concerns are hijacking customer choice in a lot of areas of the economy and not least in the automotive sector.”