Petrol-electric hybrid cars and plug-in hybrid cars will remain on sale the Government has announced as part of a readjusted ZEV mandate. Mild-hybrid cars are excluded from this.
There has been no change to the cut-off date of 2030 for the sale of new combustion petrol and diesel cars.
The changes were announced as part of the Government reaction to help the automotive sector respond to the tariffs imposed on UK exports to America.
These changes will certainly help private users acclimatise to fully electric cars in the future, especially if they are reticent about using the technology. I believe we will see greater hybrid and plug-in hybrid choice from the car makers as a result.
For business users, the available tax benefits on plug-in hybrid cars remain for those plug-in hybrids that can travel more than 40 miles on electricity alone until the 2028/29 tax year when rates will become prohibitively expensive. Any business users should be looking to switch to fully electric before that point.
In further changes announced by the Government, petrol and diesel vans will remain on sale until 2035; originally they were due to be banned from 2030. This is a highly sensible move, added Manners. The commercial vehicle sector has been more difficult to transition to electric due to a variety of issues, ranging from product suitability to charging availability. So I welcome this decision which really will help all stakeholders in the sector.
