April 16, 2025
Sara Davies
Electric and Hybrid News
On 7th April, the Prime Minister announced plans to change the ZEV mandate to support the UK car industry, which employs 152,000 people and adds £19 billion to the economy.
What is the ZEV Mandate?
The UK’s Zero Emission Vehicle Mandate is a government policy that mandates car manufacturers to sell a specific percentage of zero-emission vehicles each year, in the lead up to an eventual ban on all ICE vehicles.
What is the Point of the Mandate?
The goal of the ZEV mandate is to reduce emissions from transportation and contribute to net-zero targets.
How is the ZEV Mandate Changing?
The UK government is softening some of the original targets and providing more flexibility for car manufacturers.
The changes will support the UK car industry by increasing flexibility of the mandate up to 2030, so that more cars can be sold in later years when demand is higher, in addition to other changes. They follow extensive consultation and support industry in making the UK a global automotive leader in the switch to electric.
The car industry will be able to:
- extend their ability to borrow in 2024-26, to enable repayment through to 2030.
- extend their ability to transfer non-ZEVs to ZEVs from 2024-26, out to 2029, giving added flexibility to reward CO2 savings from hybrids.
- benefit from van to car transfer, i.e. 1 car credit will be exchanged for 0.4 van credits, and 1 van credit will be exchanged for 2.0 car credits.
- allow hybrid cars sales until 2035 to help soften the transition.
- be exempt from the 2030 phase out if they are small and micro-volume manufacturers.
- continue to sell vans with an internal combustion engine (ICE) until 2035, alongside full hybrids and plug-in hybrid vans.
The government has stated that it’s committed to pushing forward tax breaks worth hundreds of millions of pounds to help people transition to EVs.
How Will the Changes Help?
The ZEV mandate changes are designed to help industry meet the mandate and manufacture more electric vehicles, while increasing the demand for them. The amendments will have a significant impact on manufacturers’ ability to decarbonise in a manner that is sustainable for them – providing short-term flexibility to ensure that jobs and investment remain in the UK.
The UK’s already the largest EV market in Europe and the third in the world. Demand for electric vehicles is already rising, with the latest data showing sales in March were up over 40% on last year, which will help with the transition.
With a new charge-point being added to the UK network every 30 minutes, the government is already spending £2.3 billion on boosting British manufacturing and improving charging infrastructure. There’s also around £6 billion of private funding to be invested in the UK’s chargepoint roll-out by 2030.
What are the Key Takeaways?
From 2030 all new cars will need to be hybridised in some manner – or be zero emission. From 2035, all new cars and vans will be zero emission.
The key changes to the mandate allow the sale of hybrid vehicles and ICE vans until 2035, and extend the period for manufacturers to meet their ZEV targets. There are also exemptions for small and micro-volume manufacturers.
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