The United Kingdom moves Electric Vehicle Targets to 2035

What’s Happening

The UK has set forth a new goal of banning sales of conventional fossil fuel vehicle sales by 2030 and only allowing zero-emission vehicles from 2035. This is a part of a 10 point plan by the UK to induce what they have been calling a new ‘green industrial revolution’. This is an acceleration of their previous goals to ban sales of fossil fuel cars, which was previously set for 2040. The government has committed to invest around $1.7 billion into the development of battery technologies and infrastructure. The plan includes investment into public and at home charging infrastructure and electric vehicle incentives.

Here’s Our Take

As various countries around the world join the effort to combat their carbon emissions, we are seeing many more national pledges to phase out gas-powered vehicles. We have seen aggressive ZEV transition plans from Norway, and now the UK joins both Sweden and Ireland with their goals of banning the sale of light-duty gasoline and diesel vehicle sales by 2030. The main goal of these sales bans is to decarbonize the transportation sector, to stoke demand for new ZEVs, and encourage manufacturers to make them more available and affordable.

Most importantly these ambitious ZEV targets will require supportive policies if they hope to convince consumers to buy the vehicles. Over the next few years, we will see many more international pledges to reduce transportation emissions, and assess which policies will be most effective in encouraging ZEVs for consumers. The UK plan includes funds for consumer incentives and charging investments. We know from our research that incentives become more important over time as we move from early adopters to mass-market consumers.