With sales of EVs way off government targets in almost all western markets despite heavy subsidies, European lawmakers are set to announce the ban on sales of new petrol and diesel cars will be pushed back five years, to 2040.
The move would put EU countries significantly out of step with UK regulations which, while having been changed at least half a dozen times since they were announced in 2016, are set to mandate that sales of new petrol and diesel cars be outlawed from 2030, with plug-in hybrids allowed a stay of execution between 2030 and 2035, after which only ‘zero emission’ cars will be permitted in new-car showrooms.
Tim Tozer, UK chairman for insurance firm Allianz Partners, who previously held senior positions with Vauxhall, Mazda and Mitsubishi, told The Times: “I have it on good authority that the EU is going to add five years on to the current 2035 to make the date 2040, which would mean that from January 1, 2040, all new vehicles would need to be pure electric.”
A second industry source told the paper the car makers had been informed about the deadline being pushed back, with manufacturers said to be poised to introduce new petrol and hybrid cars.
The news comes against a backdrop of a struggling European automotive industry, which is facing factory closures and job loses in the face of fierce competition from Chinese firms, coupled with widespread consumer resistance to EVs.
Earlier this year the head of Mercedes wrote to the president of the European Commission to inform her that the EV mandate is “no longer feasible”. But while EU leaders appear to have heeded that warning at least in part, UK politicians remain deeply wedded to the idea of an electric-only future, and continue to pour taxpayer cash into retail and business incentives designed to convince a reluctant customer base to put its money into battery power.
