UK petrol and diesel car sales ban faces five-year delay
The 2030 ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars may not happen until 2035 if sources quoted by a BBC report are correct.
The UK Government’s ambitious plan to ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2030 – five years before a similar ban is due to take effect across Europe – is in doubt. That’s according to the BBC, which is quoting ‘unnamed sources’ that claim Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will delay the ban until 2035.
The 2030 target was introduced in 2020 as part of the then-Prime Minister, Boris Johnston’s ‘green revolution'. It has become a symbol of the UK’s drive to lower harmful emissions from vehicles and the country’s march towards the legal commitment set out in 2019 to reach ‘net zero’ by 2050. Now reports suggest that Sunak plans to backtrack on the ban and the news could break officially in a speech delivered in the coming days, giving petrol and diesel cars a stay of execution.
The ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars has proved controversial as while uptake of new electric cars has been strong, doubts still remain concerning their affordability and the charging infrastructure needed to support them as mass adoption gathers pace. The UK is the only major European market that is currently offering no government incentives to support EV sales, which nevertheless accounted for just over 20 percent of the car market in August 2023.
There was no comment from the Government on the speculation around the possible delay of the internal combustion engined car ban with the Prime Minister’s office only stating that: "The Government remains completely committed to its Net Zero commitments, with the UK having cut emissions faster than any other G7 country," a government spokesperson said.
"Our approach will always be pragmatic and ensure costs are not passed onto hard-working families."
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