Stellantis hits ZEV mandate targets for 2024: comment

“In hitting their EV sales targets in the first year, Stellantis has shown that it is able to adapt and compete as the world moves away from the internal combustion engine. It joins the likes of BMW, Mercedes and Hyundai in proving that car manufacturers are more than capable of upping their games and meeting their EV sales targets.
 
“This announcement confirms our own analysis that the car industry as a whole has met its EV sales targets in their first year. [2] Suggestions that the car industry was struggling, and that the ZEV mandate target was too onerous, have proven to be wrong, and were often based on a misunderstanding of how the policy actually works. 
 
“By encouraging greater competition between manufacturers as they seek to hit their targets, the mandate is driving prices down. This is turn is driving sales up, as more and more British drivers are able to afford making the transition to cleaner and cheaper electric driving. And since the new EVs sold today will become the second-hand EVs of tomorrow, the mandate will expand the pool of used electric cars that will help millions more families make the shift. 
 
“The mandate has provided certainty for investors to pour millions into the charging network and also British renewables which will provide the power. The Government should avoid making any major changes to the mandate as this would jeopardise future investment and jobs, particularly as the car industry seeks to secure its future by making the transition to building the electric vehicles that our export markets increasingly demand.” 
 
Analysis of vehicle CO2 data from the Department for Transport and the latest vehicle sales data from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) reveals that the car industry has met the ZEV mandate target of 22% for 2024. This is because credits to hit the ZEV Mandate target are earned not just from the sale of EVs, but also from the sale of large numbers of low emission petrol and diesel cars – a flexibility worked into the mandate by the previous government that the car industry was in favour of. [3]
 
The sale of EVs takes the industry to 19.6%, with around a further 3% being earned from selling low-CO2 emissions petrol and diesel vehicles (exact results will be confirmed by the Government later in the year). [4]
 
A recent report by CBI Economics, commissioned by the ECIU, revealed that a failure by the car industry to make the transition to manufacturing EVs could see its contributions to the UK economy fall by as much as 73%, or £34.1bn, and over 400,000 jobs could be lost. Conversely, economic output could increase by over £16bn, and 167,000 new jobs could be created, if a rapid and successful transition takes place. Government support is critical in avoiding such an outcome, and this includes the provision of a stable and supportive regulatory environment through keeping measures like the ZEV Mandate in place. [5]