Tories to scrap ban on petrol cars

Kemi Badenoch has said the Tories will ditch the 2030 ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars if the party wins the next election.

The Conservative leader said she would scrap Downing Street’s electric vehicle (EV) quotas, describing them as an “economic act of self-harm”.

Writing for The Telegraph, she warned that Labour’s “ideological zeal” risked leaving Britain isolated and uncompetitive, and played into China’s hands.

Ms Badenoch’s intervention creates a dividing line with the Government, which argues net zero is the “economic opportunity of the 21st century”.

Drivers will now face a clear choice at the next election, which must be held before the 2030 ban is scheduled to come into force.

Mrs Badenoch made the commitment after holding a meeting with Giorgia Meloni, the Italian prime minister, who has piled pressure on the EU to ditch its own ban.

‘Only winner is China’

She wrote: “The reality is that the EU’s change of heart on EVs will leave Labour even more isolated, and by pressing ahead alone, we are placing our domestic industry at a disadvantage while giving others the opportunity to dominate global supply chains.

“The only winners in this economic self-harm are China, who have happily profited from our decision to accelerate demand for electric vehicles without first securing our own battery and mineral supply chains.”

The Tory leader said she planned to scrap the “destructive” Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) mandate, which is the law that will enact the petrol and diesel car ban.

Car manufacturers must meet rapidly increasing quotas for sales of electric vehicles, which will eventually rise to 100 per cent.

It will result in the sale of new fully petrol and diesel powered cars being banned from 2030. The sale of hybrids will be outlawed from 2035.

These requirements would be scrapped in their entirety under the Tories.

Industry figures have privately raised concerns that demand from the public for electric vehicles is not strong enough to meet their quotas.

Ministers recently acknowledged their concerns by reviving cash grants for battery-powered cars, which were scrapped by the Tories in 2022.

Mrs Badenoch argued that ditching the ban would save taxpayers billions in subsidies and tax breaks designed to boost the uptake of EVs.

“We will bring the UK back into line with other global markets and give businesses the freedom to respond to real consumer demand,” she wrote.

“The transition to cleaner transport will continue, but it must be driven by affordability, practicality and technological progress. It should not be dictated by unrealistic mandates that weaken domestic manufacturing and empower foreign competitors.

“I am willing to be criticised for taking the right, if controversial approach, if it stops the deindustrialisation of the UK.”

Reform UK has also said it would scrap the ban with Richard Tice, its deputy leader, arguing that doing so is the “only way to save the UK automotive industry”.

Labour is now the only one of the top three parties still supporting the policy, which could prove a key issue among Britain’s 40 million drivers at the next election.

Boris Johnson, the former Tory prime minister, first announced the plans for a ban on the sale of petrol and diesel cars from 2030.

His proposal meant the UK would go faster on phasing out internal combustion than the EU, which had set a 2035 date for its own ban.

Britain was required to hit net zero targets that Mrs Badenoch has warned will be “impossible” to achieve without “bankrupting” the country.

The Tory leader, who was then the business secretary, opposed the policy within Cabinet and warned that it would damage investment in Britain.

EU poised to scrap its own ban

Mr Johnson’s successor Rishi Sunak then delayed Britain’s date to 2035 to match Europe’s as part of a wider pushback against net zero policies.

Labour brought it forward again after winning power, arguing Mr Sunak’s decision had done “untold harm to the electric vehicle transition in the UK”.

Government ministers will now come under pressure to change course, with Brussels expected to announce this week that it is also scrapping its own ban.

After pressure from Italy and Germany, the EU commission will water down proposed cuts to vehicle emissions from 100 per cent to 90 per cent.

It will mean that car manufacturers can continue to sell a proportion of vehicles which are powered solely by petrol or diesel.

Downing Street has insisted that it will still press ahead with the ban in the UK despite car manufacturers urging ministers to change course.

Responding to the EU’s decision, a government spokesman said: “We remain committed to phasing out all new non-zero emission car and van sales by 2035.

“More drivers than ever are choosing electric, and November saw another month of increased sales with EV’s accounting for one in four cars sold.”

[Source: Daily Telegraph]