Despite a large rebellion, the Zero Emission Vehicle Mandate is passed.
The market is ‘now being dictated to by a government, which is almost like a communist state,’ said motorist campaigners.
Legislation requiring carmakers to produce an escalating minimum quota of electric vehicles passed despite Conservative 38 MPs rebelling against it.
On Monday evening, legislation bringing in the government’s Zero Emission Vehicle Mandate (ZEV) passed, which enforces an 80 percent target for electric vehicles as a percentage of new car sales by 2030.
The regulation comes into force in January, mandating that 22 percent of each manufacturer’s new vehicle registrations must be zero-emission. Under the ZEV mandate, manufacturers that fail to meet thresholds will be fined £15,000 per ICE (internal combustion engine) sold above the limits.
The Conservative government said that the decarbonisation of cars and vans “is a priority for achieving net zero” that “it is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for the UK economy.”
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The law sets targets for the percentage of a manufacturer’s cars or vans that should be zero emission each year. Those start at 22 percent for cars and 10 percent for vans in 2024 and rise each year to reach 80 percent for cars and 70 percent for vans in 2035.
Harry Wilkinson, Net Zero Watch head of policy told The Epoch Times by email that “this is a very significant vote which shows the strength of feeling on the backbenches.”
“Conservative members are clearly deeply sceptical about the whole net zero agenda, but they don’t have a government which reflects those views. I welcome Rishi’s change of tone on net zero but that needs to be followed with a change of policy—he needs to stand up to the civil servants who keep pushing through draconian net zero measures.”
ICE
Reform London Mayoral Candidate and CEO of FairFuel Howard Cox told The Epoch Times that even though there is not an explicit ICE quota it will impact diesel and petrol vehicle production.
“There is a deliberate policy to reduce the amount of diesel petrol produced by the fact that after 2030, you can’t buy a new diesel petrol car in this country. That means by definition, yes, this is actually a policy to stop diesel petrol production,” he said.
The Epoch Times contacted the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero for comment and asked how will the cap on ICE vehicles will be decided.
The lobbyist and campaigner for motorists said he believes that most manufacturers are being “blackmailed into producing electric vehicles to follow a net zero fantasy.”
“They’ve got no choice,” he said.
“By definition, the market is being dictated to by a government, which is almost like a communist state. It’s not a free market anywhere because the government have decided to tell us what we are going to drive.
“Don’t forget the Chinese are still going produce diesel petrol cars, as well as electric vehicles,” he said.
“It is absolutely disgusting how the government are following a completely and utterly pointless direction, which won’t make any difference to the state of our planet,” he added.
