UK government reaffirms ambition to have all vehicles ‘zero emissions capable’ by 2035.

In the past two weeks the UK government has released the eagerly anticipated Net Zero Strategy document, which includes an action plan for reducing petrol and diesel powered vehicle usage.

The UK is well on its way to progressing towards zero emissions travel, with almost 300,000 pure-electric cars on UK roads by the end of May 2021. Currently around 15% of all new cars registered on the roads are electric vehicles. In comparison to this figure, by the end of 2015 only 1.1% of all new vehicles were plug in electric vehicles, proving that there has been a sizeable shift in consumer demand towards zero emission vehicular travel.

However, a continuation of this trend will be difficult to achieve without action by the UK government and is why the ‘zero emission vehicle mandate’ to be achieved by 2035 has been introduced. The plans include a £620 million investment into the sector, in order to provide grants to those willing to make the change to electric vehicles and also to implement improved infrastructure, including a large focus on vehicle charging points.

Only time will tell if the UK can uphold its claim to end the sales of petrol and diesel powered cars by 2030; however mandates and funding such as this provide a huge boost for the sector; and will hopefully aid the trend towards becoming a net zero nation.

Photo obtained from Mike Birdy (White and Orange Gasoline Nozzle · Free Stock Photo (pexels.com))