Petrol cars 'rationed' to meet climate change targets

2 September 2024, 23:16

Car manufacturers are "rationing" the sale of petrol and hybrid vehicles across the UK in a bid to meet EV targets, a new report claims.

Car makers are allegedly delaying the delivery of petrol cars until next year as they express fears they will breach quotas set for them by the Government, Robert Forrester, chief executive of Vertu Motors, said.

Mr Forrester says this means someone ordering a new car now may not receive it until February next year.

“In some franchises there’s a restriction on supply of petrol cars and hybrid cars, which is actually where the demand is,” he told the Telegraph.

“It’s almost as if we can’t supply the cars that people want, but we’ve got plenty of the cars that maybe they don’t want.

“They [manufacturers] are trying to avoid the fines. So they’re constraining the ability for us to supply petrol cars in order to try and keep to the government targets.”

Mr Forrester pinned the blame for this on the zero emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate, which demands at least 22 per cent of all vehicles sold are electric starting this year.

That percentage will increase every year until it hits 80 per cent in 2030.

He added: “What the Government’s actually doing is constraining the new car market, which has a big impact on VAT receipts for them, and creates a business environment in the UK where manufacturers may question whether they want to make cars here.

“As Carlos Tavares [chief executive of Stellantis] has said, why should they sell cars at a loss because of UK government policy?

“The new car market is no longer a market, unfortunately. It’s a state-imposed supply chain.”

These comments come as Vertu, which has 192 outlets across the UK, announced it is expecting a 5.8 per cent drop in sales in the five months leading to July 31.