Vauxhall warns UK car law is 'terrible' and 'killing' the country

A Vauxhall boss has attacked the "terrible" electric vehicle mandate and warned it could kill the UK car industry. The head of Stellantis, Carlos Tavares, CEO of the automotive giant, attacked the Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) mandate over electric vehicle (EV sales).

The law orders manufacturers to have a minimum percentage of sales be electric. Speaking earlier today, Tavares added: “It’s very simple. The ZEV mandate is [forcing] carmakers to have a growing EV sales mix every year.

“The problem is the natural demand of the market today in the UK on EVs is half of the mandate. If your mandate is imposing on you a level of BEV [battery electric vehicle] sales mix that is double the natural demand of the market, and if the ZEV mandate puts me in a corner by saying, ‘if you don’t meet this, I’m going to kill you with fines’, the consequence is that everybody will start pushing the BEV, which then totally destroys profitability," the Telegraph reported.

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He added that people would not expect the manufacturing giant to support "a red ink business". He added: "I am not asking for incentives. I could. But that [means] more taxes for UK citizens – I don’t think we need more taxes.”

Tavares has described the scheme as being "terrible for the UK", as it restricts the sale of petrol and diesel cars over the coming years. The zero emission vehicle ( ZEV ) mandate sets out the percentage of new zero emission cars and vans manufacturers will be required to produce each year up to 2030. 80% of new cars and 70% of new vans sold in Great Britain will now be zero emission by 2030, increasing to 100% by 2035.

Technology and Decarbonisation Minister Anthony Browne said: "Alongside us having spent more than £2 billion in the transition to electric vehicles, our zero emission vehicle mandate will further boost the economy and support manufacturers to safeguard skilled British jobs in the automotive industry.

"We are providing investment certainty for the charging sector to expand our charging network which has already grown by 44% since this time last year. This will support the constantly growing number of EVs in the UK, which currently account for over 16% of the new UK car market."