With the car sector fighting against what it calls unworkable targets, have we hit a crunch point in the government’s plan to get us all into EVs?
After yesterday’s Luton car plant closure news and the reaction of car sector to it, the Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds has promised at review of the ZEV (Zero Emissions Vehicle) mandate.
He said he had heard the concerns from the sector: “We have to accept and have to analyse whether the environment in the UK for automotive manufacturing is one that’s going to get us to the destination, in a way which keeps those jobs and industry in the UK.
“As a Government committed to both industrial strength in the UK and the transition, we’ve got to be willing to work with industry and ask ourselves: Are specific provisions of that policy working as they should do?”
So is ZEV dead?
We spoke to Nick Molden CEO of Emissions Analytics, an expert on EVs to get his take on the decisons ahead.
He said: “I don’t think Zev is dead for two reasons. One is the need to decarbonise is still as pressing as ever, even more pressing. So that’s in no doubt at all. So we have to get to low CO2 emissions. But the other thing is I don’t think the government is yet ready to give up on it completely.
“What we will see in the next few weeks through this consultation will be a fudge. I’m almost certain that they’ll try and preserve as many of the sort of totemic bits about it, like the 2030 phase out of internal combustion engines.
“But they’ll really dilute it behind the scenes, to give the industry an easier ride and it’ll postpone the day of the real crunch to two years time, something like that,
Nick also discussed the major decision that would shift the dial, promoting the roll out of hybrids.
“In reality that’s an extremely good solution and one that we’ve pointed to for many years now. Because hybrids are hardly more expensive than normal vehicles, they don’t require any behavioural change.
“You get 25 to 30% CO2 reduction off the bat for virtually no cost. And we would be supporting manufacturers who are quite big in manufacturing in the UK.
“So that is the obvious solution if you’re serious about getting cost effective decarbonisation quickly.
“But the problem is that would require legislative change that cannot be accommodated under the current net zero laws and the government. “
Watch the full interview above.
