7:43 am, June 14, 2026
ZEV Mandate targets are set to be cut in a dramatic intervention by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, reports suggest.
The Sunday Times has said that the PM will water down the targets after pressure from the industry and unions.
The requirement for 80% of new car sales to be fully electric by 2030 ‘will be reduced to 50%’, said the front page story in the weekend paper.
Sources told the national outlet that an announcement is ‘expected in the coming weeks’.
The decision sees Starmer overrule his Net Zero minister Ed Miliband and side with business secretary Peter Kyle, who has been pushing for changes.
The decision is said to have been made because of fears of wide-spread job losses and investment being pulled from the UK by car manufacturers.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said the Mandate was ‘significantly contributing’ to the loss of automotive jobs in Britain.
‘This is a clear fact,’ she told the paper. ‘The targets must be radically reduced.’
The ZEV Mandate sees fines issued to car manufacturers who miss their annual quotas of electric vehicle sales at a cost of £12,000 per car.
The Sunday Times front page, June 14
To avoid the fines, car makers have drastically discounted electric cars to encourage take up among reluctant new car buyers.
In 2024, car makers had to ensure 22% of their new car sales were EVs, in 2025 it was 28% and this year car makers are targeted to hit 33%. This was set to increase every year until 80% of all new car sales were EV in 2030.
Hybrid cars would make up the remaining 20% with pure petrol and diesel cars banned from sale from 2030.
However, last year, the car industry missed its 28% target, managing just 23.4% of new car sales as electric only.
Speaking at the end of last year, Vertu Motors CEO Robert Forrester said the government was ‘delusional’ over new electric car targets.
The boss of the last listed franchised car dealer group warned the policy risks leaving the UK isolated from the rest of the global car industry.
‘The UK is now completely out of lockstep with the rest of the world in terms of EV policy,’ he said.
‘We represent just 2% of an integrated global automotive market, yet we’ve set the tightest targets anywhere. The pressure this puts on the sector is frankly delusional.’
Speaking after the release of May’s new car data earlier this month, SMMT chief Mike Hawes said: ‘The EV transition is progressing, but consumer uptake still lags behind even today’s targets, let alone the ambition set out in the latest Carbon Budget.
‘While industry shares the long-term ambition, the pathway to Net Zero must be credible. It cannot come at the cost of lost competitiveness and deindustrialisation.
‘A review of the transition is now urgent to ensure ambition matches market realities and we have a sustainable path to road transport decarbonisation.’
