New UK car law could 'backfire' with 'unintended consequences'

A fresh UK road law coming in 2024 could backfire and have "unintended consequences", motoring experts have warned. New ZEV mandate rule changes introduced at the start of 2024 could backfire with new car supply set to take a hit.

Philip Nothard, insight director at Cox Automotive has suggested the government’s Zero Emissions Vehicle (ZEV) mandate may lead to a drop in supply of new cars. Under the Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) mandate, at least 22 per cent of new cars sold by each manufacturer in the UK this year must be zero-emission, which in most cases means they are pure electrics.

This will go up each year until it hits 100% by 2035. Philip said: “With the UK’s ICE ban deadline U-turn, a palpable lack of help for the sector in the most recent budget, such as the Government addressing the VAT discrepancy between domestic and public charging, it may well be that an unintended consequence of the ZEV mandate could be a drop in the supply of new vehicles.

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“Manufacturers looking at the UK market may change tack and opt to put their cars into less stringent markets in other parts of the world. It’s still early days, but clarity on how the sector will react in the inaugural year of the mandate has yet to materialise.”

Philip added: “Double-digit growth in the first three months is no mean feat and cannot be easily dismissed. But it trails far behind figures before the pandemic and is, indeed, 22.2 percent behind the figure for 2019 alone. So, the numbers are charged with positivity, but the market is a long way off what could reasonably be characterised as normal.”

Firms who dont keep up or use loopholes such as banking credits from past years or buying credits from other companies will have to pay the Government £15,000 for each polluting car sold over the limit.