Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the FairCharge report Driving away from fossil fuels: consumer attitudes to electric vehicles, published in July, whether they will introduce the recommendations that (1) "the proportion of new cars required to be Battery Electric Vehicles should be set at the level of the Climate Change Committee’s Balanced Net Zero Pathway", and (2) there should be "further consumer incentives for lower income drivers, such as zero-interest loan schemes".

The UK zero emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate will set targets requiring a percentage of manufacturers’ new car and van sales to be zero emission each year from 2024. The technical consultation on the design of this ZEV mandate and proposed trajectories closed in June 2022. The Department is now analysing consultation responses, and will bring forward the Government’s response, and a full regulatory proposal, in due course.

The Government has no plans to introduce a zero-interest loan scheme for electric vehicle (EV) drivers. In many cases, EVs continue to benefit from significant savings on the cost of fuel. Charging a medium-sized electric car at home at rates equivalent to the electricity price cap from 1 October equates to around half the cost of filling up an equivalent petrol vehicle. In addition, EVs generally cost less to maintain due to fewer moving parts than their petrol or diesel equivalents.