Transport Secretary announces plan to support car makers in House of Commons: comment

“The UK’s car industry undoubtedly faces uncertain times, but it should be remembered that President Trump’s tariffs on UK car exports to the United States have very little to do with targets for EV sales here in the UK. There is little logic in weakening the mandate in the hope that it will help manufacturers deal with the problems these tariffs present.
 
“The Government’s decision to weaken the mandate is also confusing for coming at a time when the industry is proving itself more than capable of meeting the EV sales targets it has been set. The mandate is actually a global UK success story introduced by the previous Government and continued under this one, highlighted by the International Energy Agency for its role in driving a surge in EV sales in what has become Europe’s largest EV market. [1] 
 
“But, in weakening the mandate elsewhere by extending flexibilities and allowing the sale of standard hybrids between 2030 and 2035, the Government risks reducing the competition it has stimulated between manufacturers. Prices could rise, and sales could slow, denying many families the opportunity to enjoy the 2p per mile driving that the Secretary of State rightly highlights as one of the benefits from come from EV ownership. The growth of the second-hand EV market, where most of us buy our cars, would in turn be stunted – leaving millions of families stuck in petrol and hybrid cars paying a petrol premium of hundreds, and even thousands, of pounds a year.
 
“Questions will be asked about the wider economic impacts that these changes will have. Will the higher driving costs associated with petrol cars being driven for longer stifle growth elsewhere? Will business confidence be undermined, and billions of investment in the UK’s charging infrastructure, and the wider economy, be held back? And what will this recurrence of the regulatory uncertainty we saw under the previous Government mean for efforts to ensure our car industry is able to make a successful transition to building the electric vehicles of the future, a transition on which its survival, and the hundreds of thousands of jobs it sustains, depends?”