However, he warned that a mandate would need to avoid becoming “a straightjacket” for the market and manufacturing investment in the UK. Hawes also noted the lack of incentive for buyers, with higher list prices for electric models posing a challenge.
Hawes said: “The danger is that consumers will lack the incentive to purchase these new vehicles – vehicles that will remain more expensive than traditional petrol and diesel cars for a number of years to come – in the quantities needed, keeping their older, more polluting vehicles for even longer, thereby undermining the carbon savings this regulation seeks to deliver.
“Market transformation is proven to work fastest when mandates are matched with incentives and, for automotive electrification, we also need commensurate and binding targets for infrastructure provision.” He added: “The automotive sector continues to invest billions in a wide and growing range of zero -mission vehicles, vehicles which are already becoming commonplace on Britain’s roads.”
Just 12% of all new car sales in 2021 were zero-emission models, but uptake increased 122% between 2019 and 2020, and a further 97% from 2020 to 2021.
The government needs to mandate on the density of charging stations especially fast chargers….the network is currently under populated, unreliable and has to many providers with multiple apps etc….it should be a common network…