Transport Secretary and Business Secretary meeting with industry on ZEV Mandate

Today, Transport Secretary Louise Haigh and Business and Trade Secretary Jonathan Reynolds hosted a roundtable with automotive and charging industry leaders to discuss the transition to electric vehicles and the ZEV Mandate.

A Government spokesperson said:

“Ministers from across Government have met with automotive sector and industry representatives to discuss the transition to electric vehicles, and how the Government can support continued growth of the sector. 

“Recognising the global challenges the industry has been facing, ministers underlined the Government's commitment to working constructively and in close partnership with the sector as we support the transition to electric vehicles by 2030.

“The UK automotive sector now has the fastest growth of zero emission vehicles of any major European market, and we're providing more than £2.3 billion to support industry and consumers in making the switch, with 57 new public electric vehicle chargers added on average each day.”

Background briefing:

General:

• Today's attendees included representatives from SMMT, Tesla, Nissan, Ford, Volkswagen Group, Stellantis, BMW, Toyota, ChargeUK, and BVRLA.

ZEV Mandate:

• We are committed to reinstating the 2030 phase out of cars solely powered by internal combustion engines and the delivering the ZEV transition in a way that also supports UK economic growth.
• We will set out further details in due course.
• We're investing £2bn to support the UK automotive manufacturing industry in making the switch.
• This comes on top of £120m support for businesses to purchase of new electric vans via the plug-in vehicle grant and to support the manufacture of wheelchair-accessible EVs, alongside a range of taxation incentives.
• The ZEV Mandate has a range of flexible targets designed in consultation with the sector to support manufacturers. These include:
• • CO2 Conversion: A manufacturer that lowers its average CO2 emissions across its vehicle fleet, for example by selling efficient hybrids, is allowed to sell fewer zero emission vehicles.
  • Borrowing: A manufacturer can choose to deliver fewer ZEVs this year in exchange for delivering more in future years.
  • Banking: Manufacturers that overperform targets this year can save that compliance for future years.
  • Trading: Manufacturers that overperform targets this year can sell that compliance to manufacturers that underperformed.

Chargepoints:

• The chargepoint industry has committed over £6bn to 2030 to grow the UK's charging infrastructure. 
• We've committed £200m from the Budget to accelerate the chargepoint roll-out.
• There are now over 71k public chargers in the UK, with 57 added on average each day. This is a fantastic achievement, and we will continue supporting industry roll out chargepoints as fast and as widely as possible.
• It is only by bringing two critical industries together – manufacturing and infrastructure – that we can look holistically at the challenges of encouraging fleets, businesses, and families to choose zero emission models. 
• We also want to knock down the barriers to getting chargers in faster. We're working on making planning & permitting easier, and grid connections are a clear cross-Government priority.      
• In parallel, we need to work together to build that public trust to make the switch. Further requirements under the Public Charge Point Regulations come into force this month making it easier to pay for charging and to find an available chargepoint, which will improve the experience of EV drivers, and, as we set out in our Automotive Strategy, we want to look at possible chargepoint targets that support the chargepoint industry, give consumer confidence and gets Government funding where it's most needed.