The Government is in dialogue with makers of hybrid vehicles including Toyota as it looks at introducing “flexibility” on the scheduled ban on the sales of new pure petrol and diesel cars in 2030, the business and trade secretary Kemi Badenoch has said.
British authorities have said it will allow the sales of combustion-engined cars with a “significant zero-emission capability” for five years after the initial ban, but has yet to define what that means.
“We know it is not an easy transition so what we are working on is how we can be as flexible as possible to make it easy for people to adjust,” Badenoch told journalists at the sidelines of Monday’s announcement of Government support for the electric vehicle refit of the Mini plant in Oxford.
“There is no point putting a deadline in if people aren’t able to make that transition from petrol to electric.”
Badenoch said she had been in conversation with hybrid manufacturers such as Toyota, without revealing the scope of that conversation.
Toyota is by far the UK’s largest seller of full hybrid vehicles in the UK, and builds the hybrid Corolla hatchback and estate at its plant in Derbyshire. It also makes combustion engines for hybrids at its plant on Deeside, north west England.
Toyota has been pushing for its hybrids to be given a sales extension to the beginning of 2035, arguing that its hybrid cars are zero-emission for over half the driving time, including coasting.
The firm has previously hinted that it might shut the Burnaston plant if it wasn’t allowed to continue to build hybrids there until at least 2035.
Badenoch’s apparent conciliatory tone contrasts with Government language in a consultation document published in March focusing on the zero-emission-vehicle (ZEV) mandate due next year. In the document the government said it was postponing its definition of what “significant zero-emission capability” means while it investigated reports that plug-in hybrids emit far more carbon dioxide than claimed by carmakers.
The SMMT automotive industry lobby has said that the lack of clarity on the definition is hindering investment.
Britain’s two biggest car makers in the UK – JLR and Nissan – both depend heavily on hybrid models. JLR was the biggest seller of plug-in hybrids in the UK to the end of August according to SMMT figures, while Nissan was the second-largest seller of full hybrids after Toyota. Nissan builds the Qashqai E-power hybrid and Juke Hybrid at its Sunderland plant.
BMW has said its Mini plant in Oxford will only make electric cars after 2030.
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