@kezo I hadn’t realised that you’d made a similar post in the ‘off topic’ section as I hardly ever look over there! Besides, with all the talk about the scheme changes and pence per mile charges, I thought that it was very much ‘on topic’ for the main forum. I agree with you that, if this change across the EU is confirmed (which follows the US doing similar) it will be fascinating to see what our government does. The U.K. remaining an outlier will be counter to the governments stated (but not delivered) aim of prioritising growth. The current U.K. policy isn’t pushing enough people into EVs, it’s just causing the overall car industry (and therefore economy) to suffer, with new car sales being much less now than they were pre-pandemic. 2040 is far more sensible, but should just be an aim, not an enforced target. An incoming Reform UK government, or Reform / Conservative coalition, would scrap the targets completely, so that might make a stubborn Labour government hold out for longer, but with the ZEV mandates already looking unachievable, even before the impact of the budget has washed through, as each year goes on, and the shortfall gets bigger and bigger, the policy will look increasingly daft.
@MFillingham All good reasons why 2030/35 isn’t sustainable, but you forgot the biggest one – Lack of demand! Even now, with ZEV mandates having been live for a few years, we still have a situation where only 1 in 4 new cars being sold is an EV. Put another way, 3 out of 4 are not! In total, only 5% (or 1 in 20) of the cars on our roads at present is an EV. I’ve seen a few polls that suggest that up to 40% of consumers have no intention of getting an EV, which chimes with some industry experts saying that they doubt that EV take up will ever get beyond 50%. Even 50% would be ten times what it is today which, by any measure, is a stretch target!