The UK government released on Thursday the final details of its Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) mandate, less than 100 days before it comes into force, Kallanish reports.

The regulation requires 80% of the new car and 70% of the new van sales in Great Britain to be zero emission by 2030, increasing to 100% by 2035. The mandate sets minimum annual targets, starting at 22% for new car sales in January 2024.  

Promising manufacturers flexibility, the government allows companies exceeding their annual targets to bank that compliance for years. This can then be used in future years or traded with other manufacturers that have fallen short.

To ease the early stages of adoption, manufacturers can also borrow up to 75% of their annual target in the first year. This will eventually decline to 25% in 2026, the government explains.

The automotive industry has welcomed the clarity provided in the mandate’s publication and its flexibilities, but it also stresses that demand must be matched with supply. “That means making ZEVs affordable by incentivising drivers to make the switch now and delivering the infrastructure to meet consumer expectations,” explains Mike Hawes, ceo of auto association SMMT.

The government says it has invested over £2 billion ($2.43 billion) to support electric vehicles and that it has “introduced several schemes to lower the upfront and running costs of owning an EV.” This includes a plug-in van grant of up to £2,500 for small vans and £5,000 for large vans until at least 2025; and a £350 discount on residential charger installation for those living in flats, it says. However, there is no restoration on purchase subsidies for individual car buyers.

The path to zero-emission vehicles “makes sure the route to get there is proportionate, pragmatic and realistic for families,” defends UK transport secretary Mark Harper. “Our mandate provides certainty for manufacturers, benefits drivers by providing more options and helps grow the economy by creating skilled jobs. We are also making it easier than ever to own an electric vehicle, from reaching record levels of changepoints to providing tax relief for EV owners,” he adds.

With 48,100 public EV chargers in operation across the country, the UK government says it’s “well on track” to reach its target of 300,000 public chargers by 2030. This would have to be achieved through a 30% increase per year. The auto industry and other stakeholders have recently warned deployment is lagging, standing far behind what it needs to be to reach the target by decade-end. The SMMT estimated installation rate must reach nearly 10,000 chargers/quarter, every quarter.

Earlier this month, the government announced a five-year delay on the ICE ban on new car and van sales to ease the burden on end-users. Yet, the mandate retains the most ambitious transition timeline of any major auto market in the world, but without any private consumer incentives.