Following on from the Government’s initial plan to shift to electric cars by 2030, the UK’s journey towards Net Zero was accelerated this week with the announcements of new plans ahead of the COP26 event next month.

The strategy was launched by Prime Minister Boris Johnson with the words: "In 2050, we will still be driving cars, flying planes and heating our homes, but our cars will be electric gliding silently around our cities.”

Business Minister Greg Hands announced that the Government: "will also introduce a zero emission vehicle mandate that will deliver our 2030 commitment to end the sale of new petrol and diesel cars.”

The Government announcement in detail

The details behind these plans include the Government investing £620m in grants for electric vehicles and street charging points and an additional £350m to help the automotive supply chain transition to electric, making it ‘globally competitive’. Vehicle manufacturers will also be encouraged to sell a proportion of clean cars every year.

The extra money for charging points is crucial with think tank New AutoMotive saying that the number of public charge points in the UK has doubled over the past two years, but needs another 40-50 to be installed a day over the next decade to meet demand.

The Government also pledged to increase average road vehicle occupancy by 2030, saying that increasing the average car occupancy from 1.55 to 1.7 could save nearly 3Mt of carbon each year.

The ban on petrol and diesel cars by 2030 confirmed

Another major announcement was that it will bring forward a ban on all new non-zero-emission road vehicles to 2030, including motorcycles, buses and goods vehicles, as well as making a quarter of its own car fleet ultra low emission by the end of 2022.

Boris Johnson said: “The UK’s path to ending our contribution to climate change will be paved with well-paid jobs, billions in investment and thriving green industries – powering our green industrial revolution across the country. By moving first and taking bold action, we will build a defining competitive edge in electric vehicles, offshore wind, carbon capture technology and more, whilst supporting people and businesses along the way.”

However, a Treasury report released at the same time warned that some elements of society might be left behind by the current plans: “Policies to support the adoption of EVs may disproportionately benefit higher income groups, and the costs of any policies that affect the remaining drivers may fall disproportionately on low-income groups; this could create a trade-off in some areas between incentivising decarbonisation and minimising distributional impacts.”

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