Half of new cars sold will have to be electric within five years

Half of new cars sold in the UK will have to be electric within five years despite Rishi Sunak’s delay to the ban on new petrol and diesel car sales

• Car-makers will still be subject to quotas on the number of electric cars they sell
• Tory MPs attack delay to 2030 target to ban petrol cars as ‘almost worthless’
• Manufacturers will be fined up to £15,000 for every car that doesn’t meet quotas

More than half of new cars sold in the UK will have to be electric within five years despite Rishi Sunak delaying a ban on sales of new fossil fuel vehicles, it emerged yesterday.

Car-makers will still be subject to quotas which mean a certain percentage of vehicles they sell must be electric.

The timetable will remain in place despite Prime Minister Rishi Sunak last week delaying the 2030 ban on sales of new petrol and diesel cars to 2035.

Tory MPs said it meant last week’s announcement was in reality ‘almost worthless and threadbare’.

Under the so-called ‘ZEV [zero-emission vehicle] mandates’, manufacturers will be fined up to £15,000 for every car sold that doesn’t meet the quotas.

Car-makers will still be subject to quotas which mean a certain percentage of vehicles they sell must be electric (Stock Image)

From next year 22 per cent of new car sales must be electric, increasing each year to 80 per cent in 2030 (Stock Image)

Manufacturers will be fined up to £15,000 for every car sold that doesn’t meet the quotas 

From next year 22 per cent of new car sales must be electric, increasing each year to 80 per cent in 2030.

Government officials met BMW, Toyota, Stellantis, Jaguar Land Rover, Ford, Bentley and McLaren earlier this week to tell them that the targets would remain and become law by January at the latest, the Times reported.

Tory MP Craig Mackinlay, head of the Net Zero Scrutiny Group, said: ‘If these escalating quotas remain unchanged then unfortunately the PM will have both annoyed his net zero adherents by extending the ban to 2035, but also annoyed me and others by making that extension almost worthless and threadbare.

‘Good things sell themselves. This is just not Conservative thinking and I’m afraid it will not do.’

• Sir Alok Sharma, the former president of the Cop26 climate summit, announced last night that he will not stand again as an MP at the next general election. Sir Alok, who was critical of Mr Sunak’s announcement last week that he was slowing the rush to net zero, vowed to continue championing the cause of ‘climate action’. 

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