Government U-turn needed on destructive Net Zero targets for cars - Robert Forrester

Throughout the country, joyless left-wing politicians have become zealots determined to pursue the goal of Net Zero before the legally imposed deadline of 2050. This muscular environmentalism has led to our Government going further than any industrialised country in the world in a bizarre ‘green race’ to be first to ban petrol and diesel cars.

There are two Government policies that are wreaking havoc in the motor sector; the ZEV Mandate (Zero Emissions Vehicle) and the ICE ban, (Internal Combustion Engine) which Labour have changed from 2035 to 2030. Their enforcement will make it more difficult to get hold of a new car and, if you can, it will be more expensive.

The ZEV mandate imposes £15,000 fines on manufacturers for every petrol, hybrid or diesel car they sell above a set quota each year. This year it is 78 per cent of total sales, but it falls quickly to only 20 per cent of sales in five years. Manufacturers in Britain are exasperated, because both the EU and Joe Biden’s America have a timeline which imposes similar policies over five more years, ending in 2035. Britain is out of step and as a result workers from manufacturers to salespeople are losing their jobs.

In making my points about Net Zero in this article, I would not like anybody to think our firm lacks commitment and action on sustainability. Many of our premises operate on renewable energy with solar panels being retrofitted on roofs. We know the public supports electric cars. I have one, but I also have a driveway with a charger which uses cheap overnight electricity.

If I lived on a terraced street or in an apartment block, I would be forced to use public chargers. However, there are not yet enough chargers and when I do use them, the electricity is expensive and I pay 20 per cent VAT compared to only 5 per cent at home.

Electric cars are still expensive to make and therefore expensive to buy. Cheaper cars, especially from China, are coming but not quick enough to enable the quotas to be hit and stop the fines.

The Government’s dogmatic and ideological determination to be the first to ban ICE cars turns the attention of global manufacturers to the UK when it comes to cuts. We saw the economic result of the policy recently with news that Vauxhall is closing its Luton plant, Ford’s recent job losses and Nissan has warned about the “viability of thousands of jobs”.

Ministers have been caught in the headlights of their own policy. They inherited two incompatible policies from Rishi Sunak – the extension of the ICE ban to 2035 and the ZEV Mandate. Labour doubled down on the wrong policy; instead of smoothing the ZEV mandate over ten years, they reversed Sunak’s 2035 policy and brought it closer. Reality has different ideas.

The auto sector employs over one million people. Half of this is in manufacturing, the rest is in the sales, service and supply chain. My own firm has 36 dealerships in Yorkshire representing a wide breadth of brands from Renault to Range Rover and employing well over 1,000 people. We lead the sector in the number of electric vehicles we sell, but it is still nowhere near the Government’s arbitrary targets. Ministers have only talked to manufacturers and have spurned all my requests for a meeting to explain the consequences for your neighbourhood car dealer.

The Government has announced a full review into the ZEV mandate, which will involve a consultation period with senior figures, reporting back and culminating in a final decision in January 2025. However, they are not meeting with the representatives of dealer networks, which does not make for effective consultation. We have petrol cars in compounds which have been sold to customers, but the keys cannot be handed over because manufacturers want to avoid fines at the end of this year. When the supply of petrol and diesel cars gets smaller, prices for them will rise. Eventually a new, privately-owned, car may become the preserve of the rich and the middle class.

It is time to change lanes on automotive policy. As a Brexiteer, even I agree that, on this policy, we should align with the EU. I would say that we should let the market decide based on customers’ preferences, so when cheap electric vehicles are available and charging challenges have been sorted, the consumer will buy them en-masse. This will be the policy in the US. Even Elon Musk agrees, and he is the world’s largest producer of electric cars.

Ministers need to apply the brakes and U-turn before they run out of road and destroy the UK’s car industry for good.

Robert Forrester is the CEO Vertu Motors plc.