One of Britain’s top automotive industry officials warned on Friday that the assumptions underpinning the country’s electric vehicle sales mandate “no longer hold” — calling for an immediate policy overhaul even as the market posted its strongest May in seven years.
Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) Chief Executive Mike Hawes published a detailed critique of the Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) Mandate framework, arguing that regulation designed for a period of stronger demand, greater stability, and cheaper energy does not reflect current market conditions.
Under current rules, the ZEV Mandate requires 33% of new car sales and 24% of new van sales to be zero-emission in 2026, rising to 38% and 34% respectively next year.
By 2028, the car target jumps to 52%, and both categories must reach 100% by 2035.
More than 160 battery electric vehicle models are currently available in the UK market, up from roughly 130 at the start of 2025.
“It’s clear that the assumptions underpinning the mandate no longer hold,” Hawes wrote. “It was designed for a market with stronger demand, greater stability and cheaper energy — not the market we have today. An urgent review of the ZEV Mandate is therefore essential.”
His intervention comes barely a week after SMMT data showed battery electric vehicles captured a 27.3% share of the UK new car market in May — the highest monthly figure recorded so far in 2026, yet still well below the 33% annual target imposed by the mandate.
UK Auto Market Posts Strong May
Total new car registrations reached 160,662 units in May, a 7.1% year-on-year increase and the strongest result for the month since 2019, according to SMMT data published on June 4.
Battery electric vehicle registrations rose 34.2% to 43,931 units, while plug-in hybrids climbed 23.9% to 22,167, giving the combined plug-in segment a 41.1% share of the market.
When the monthly figures were published earlier this month, Hawes struck a more measured note.
“Britain’s car buyers are responding to a market offering more choice than ever, from both new and familiar brands, resulting in a robust May,” he said then. “The EV transition is progressing, but consumer uptake still lags behind even today’s targets, let alone the ambition set out in the latest Carbon Budget.”
Chinese Brands Lead
Among individual new energy vehicle brands tracked by the SMMT, BYD led with 5,157 registrations in May, a modest 2% month-on-month increase from 5,059 in April but a 70% jump from the same month a year earlier.
BYD sells both fully electric and plug-in hybrid models in the UK.
Tesla posted the sharpest monthly rebound, surging 253% from 831 units in April to 2,934 in May.
Year-on-year growth stood at 46%.
Quarterly shipping patterns from Gigafactories in Berlin and Shanghai largely shape Tesla’s month-to-month UK registration swings, as previously reported.
Polestar registered 1,305 vehicles, a 21% increase over April and an 11% year-on-year rise — with the UK continuing to represent its largest market.
XPeng, which entered the market early last year, recorded 81 units, down 8% from 88 in April.
Discounts and Costs
Hawes devoted the bulk of his critique to the cost the mandate is imposing on automakers and the widening gap between regulatory ambition and consumer behavior.
“For all the new products now available — increasingly in the smaller and more affordable segments of the market — the gap between uptake and ambition is still having to be patched over by unsustainable manufacturer discounting,” he wrote.
According to the executive, “over the past two years, industry has absorbed more than £10 billion in costs from EV discounting to artificially drive up demand — not a model for long-term success.”
Manufacturers are offering deep incentives to avoid the £15,000-per-vehicle penalties that apply when brands miss their individual mandate thresholds.
The SMMT estimated at its Electrified conference in March that discounting averaged approximately £11,000 per BEV sold in 2025 — more than £5 billion across the year.
Despite those efforts and the government’s Electric Car Grant, which offers up to £3,750 off eligible vehicles priced below £37,000, year-to-date BEV uptake stands at 23.9%, roughly ten percentage points below the mandate’s 33% requirement.
Hawes also flagged deteriorating charging infrastructure relative to the growing EV fleet.
“The ratio of public chargepoints to plug-in vehicles has deteriorated, down to one charger for 24 vehicles last year, compared with one for 20 in 2024,” he wrote.
He noted that regional distribution is weak.
“In every region except London and the South West, ratios have worsened and there remains massively uneven distribution, with London far better served than any other region in the country.”
Hawes cited an Autotrader survey showing just 10% of recent non-electric car buyers even considered an EV, alongside rising energy costs, global uncertainty, and weaker consumer confidence as factors compounding the demand challenge.
The looming introduction of a pence-per-mile vehicle excise duty charge on EVs from April 2028 adds further friction, Hawes argued.
“Consumers consistently cite familiar reasons to hold off: cost, uncertainty about infrastructure, whether an EV will meet their driving needs,” he wrote, mentioning that if one is to “add in a prospective additional tax in the form of a pence per mile VED charge, such wariness is natural.”
International Mandates
Hawes’ call for a UK review comes as major markets worldwide have already softened or abandoned their own EV sales mandates.
In the EU, the European Commission proposed last December to lower the 2035 CO2 emissions reduction target for new cars from 100% to 90% — a move that effectively allows plug-in hybrids, range extenders, and even internal combustion vehicles to remain on sale beyond 2035, if paired with low-carbon fuels or EU-produced green steel.
Earlier in 2025, the European Parliament and Council approved a three-year averaging mechanism for the 2025–2027 compliance period, giving automakers flexibility to balance annual shortfalls against future overcompliance.
Seven EU member states have pushed back against further weakening, but negotiations on the full automotive package are expected to continue through 2026.
Canada repealed its Electric Vehicle Availability Standard entirely in February.
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government replaced the EVAS, which had required 20% ZEV sales by 2026 and 100% by 2035, with stricter greenhouse gas emissions standards and a reduced goal of 75% EV sales by 2035 and 90% by 2040.
Ottawa simultaneously reintroduced point-of-sale consumer incentives of up to C$5,000 for battery electric vehicles.
In the United States, the Trump administration went further.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rescinded in February the 2009 greenhouse gas endangerment finding and eliminated all federal vehicle emission standards from model years 2012 onward, removing the regulatory framework that had underpinned the Biden administration’s push toward 56% EV sales by 2032.
Hawes referenced these international shifts in his argument.
“This is not about weakening ambition, but restoring credibility,” he wrote. “Regulation must reflect real-world conditions.”
Industry Pressure Mounts
Westminster has committed to reviewing the ZEV Mandate in early 2027, but pressure to accelerate that timeline has intensified in recent months.
MPs on the House of Commons Business and Trade Committee wrote to ministers in May warning that the combination of outdated thresholds and potential new EU trade barriers posed an “existential risk” to the sector, urging completion of the review before year-end.
Both the National Franchised Dealers Association and the trade union Unite have separately called for the review to be brought forward.
Decarbonisation Minister Keir Mather reiterated at the SMMT Electrified summit in March that the government plans to conduct its review in early 2027.
Manufacturers at the conference, including Stellantis UK’s Eurig Druce, warned that profitability in the UK EV market has become untenable under current conditions and urged faster action.
“While industry shares the long-term ambition, the pathway to Net Zero must be credible,” Hawes said when the May figures were published. “It cannot come at the cost of lost competitiveness and deindustrialisation.”
