Most new cars must be EVs by 2030, government is told

The government must do far more to drive the uptake of electric vehicles, an official climate body has warned.

In a newly published report, the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) has told Westminster that three-fifths of all new cars bought in the UK from 2030 must be electric if emission targets are to be met.

It also wants to see 30 to 70 per cent of new cars to be ultra-low emission by 2030, as well as up to 40 per cent of new vans, as part of efforts to phase out sales of new petrol and diesel cars and vans by 2040.

Currently, says the advisory public body, fewer than five per cent of new car sales are “alternatively fuelled”.

The report notes: “There is a particular risk around meeting the fourth carbon budget which begins in just five years’ time.

“Urgent domestic measures are required and could include action to drive greater uptake of ultra-low emission vehicles and improve energy efficiency of conventional vehicles by 2030.”

This comes less than a week after prime minister Theresa May launched a 25-year plan to protect the environment.

The government says the UK is cutting emissions faster than any other G7 nation, which the report agrees with.

CCC chairman and former environment secretary Lord Deben said: “The Clean Growth Strategy (published by the government last October) is ambitious in its aims to build a thriving low-carbon Britain but ambitions alone are not enough.

“As it stands, the strategy does not deliver enough action to meet the UK’s emissions targets in the 2020s and 2030s.

“The government’s policies and proposals will need to be firmed up as a matter of urgency – and supplemented with additional measures – if the UK is to deliver on its legal commitments and secure its position as an international climate change leader.”

He added: “All departments now need to look at their contribution towards cutting emissions – including the Department for Transport.”