Britain’s car industry was plunged into a row over Labour’s net zero goals yesterday as a demand to water down electric vehicle targets urgently was rejected by the government.
The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), an industry body, said quotas forcing car makers to sell more EVs had proved ‘over ambitious’ amid slowing demand.
SMMT chief Mike Hawes said: ‘The current approach is clearly not working for cars. The mandate is too far ahead of the consumer and it’s in danger of damaging our industry significantly.’
It comes after the European Union scaled back its EV targets and the US ditched them altogether.
EV makers have rejected the call from car firms to water down Labour’s targets
But transport minister Keir Mather insisted that ‘the transition to electric is on track’ while EV makers urged Labour to resist scaling back its goals.
Latest industry figures, produced by the SMMT, suggest growth in demand for EVs is slowing.
But car makers are being forced to meet government targets to increase the proportion of new cars that they sell that produce zero emissions.
That was 22 per cent in 2024 and 28pc in 2025, rising to 33 per cent this year and hitting 80pc by 2030.
The SMMT said car makers had until now battled to keep up with the so-called ZEV mandate by subsidising EV prices to the tune of £10bn over the past two years and using ‘flexibilities’ such as selling high volumes of plug-in hybrid vehicles – but said this was unsustainable.
In 2025 battery electric vehicles accounted for just 23.4 per cent of new car registrations, below the 28 per cent requirement.
The SMMT said the gap between demand and the targets risked damaging the UK’s attractiveness as a vehicle market and a manufacturing base for car makers.
And hopes of achieving the goals have been undermined by rising raw material costs and energy prices, which mean the cost of making electric cars has not come down as hoped.
At the same time, the cost of public charging has surged and targets to install chargepoints have not been met, the SMMT said.
A government review of the ZEV mandate is due to be published early next year.
But Hawes said: ‘We can’t wait until 2027, we need it reviewed now and resolved now. Without change the sector, the economy, mobility and decarbonisation itself are in jeopardy.’
However, transport minister Mather insisted that the current timeline was ‘the right point to make sure that we can test properly where the pressure points lie’.
And Tanya Sinclair, boss of trade body Electric Vehicles UK, said: ‘Asking government to slow the rollout of EVs goes against what drivers want and risks reducing choice just as demand is growing.
‘Weakening the ZEV mandate will not stop the transition. It will only leave the companies calling for it further behind.’
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