The electric car transition is not happening as quickly as expected and a review of the ZEV Mandate, currently scheduled for 2027, is urgently required, says trade body the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).
It comes as discounts on new electric vehicles offered by car manufacturers to boost customer uptake have topped £10 billion in just two years.
“The destination has not changed and will not change,” said SMMT chief executive Mike Hawes, speaking at the annual SMMT Electrified event in Westminster. The UK is currently required to achieve 100 percent new electric car sales by 2035 (with hybrid sales now permitted between 2030 and 2035).
Hawes likened it to a sat-nav rerouting – the same goal but a different route to reach it.
“The UK’s EV transition pathway was conceived with the best of intentions – but the assumptions behind it have proved over-ambitious,” he explained.
SMMT research shows that EV battery costs are 30 percent higher than anticipated, energy costs are 80 percent higher and the cost of electric cars is 17 percent higher.
Today, the ZEV Mandate is proving “just too far ahead of the market and the consumer”.
Other major markets such as the EU, Canada and US have already altered their electric car transition plans, said Hawes.
“Recognising the world of 2026 is not the one envisaged five years ago is not a retreat from ambition. It is a necessary step to achieving it.”
While the SMMT is not questioning the ultimate move to electric, it is the pace of transition dictated by the ZEV Mandate that it wants action on.
The ZEV Mandate requires car firms to achieve an ever-growing proportion of new electric car sales. In 2025, the target was 28 percent – which was missed.
This year, the target is 33 percent. However, in the first two months of 2026, electric cars took a 22 percent UK market share.
In 2027, the target rises to 38 percent. Then a real cliff-edge comes in 2028, when it jumps to 52 percent.
Car firms who miss the target are fined £12,000 for every car they sell over it. In reality, none are paying fines – rather, they are heavily incentivising electric car sales. The £10 billion figure equates to a staggering £11,000 per electric car sold.
Car firms also have flexibilities based on reducing overall CO2 emissions, and can buy EV ‘credits’ from rival car companies that have a surplus – such as fully electric brands like Tesla.
However, these flexibilities are set to tail off in the coming years, with the targets becoming “unsustainable and undeliverable,” says the SMMT.
Aims for a ZEV Mandate review include easing the pace at which electric car targets increase each year, maintaining flexibilities and considering the role hybrids and plug-in hybrids can play in helping car buyers transition to fully electric cars.
Also speaking at SMMT Electrified, Keir Mather, the minister for maritime, aviation and decarbonisation, said the government “recognises the challenges” car firms are facing in meeting the ZEV Mandate.
“While the end goal remains clear, we acknowledge the need to listen to you and to be pragmatic. We’ve committed to publish a review of the Mandate early next year and we are listening and engaging with stakeholders across the industry.
“Is it ambitious? Yes, of course it is. And we as a government are committed to giving you the tools you need to make it happen.”
The work towards the review will begin this year, he confirmed, “but early 2027, we feel, is the right point to make sure that we can test properly where the pressure points lie… and make sure that it continues to work for manufacturers”.
“I’m not sure that’s exactly the response they wanted to hear,” said the SMMT Electrified host.
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