 The latest data (June 2026) for UK car registrations has just been released by the Department of Transport and it’s an opportunity to review where we are in relation to the ZEV (Zero Emission Vehicle) mandate and 80% of new car sales to be ZEVs by 2030. In June 2026 there were 219,716 new cars registered of which 63,993 were ZEVs, so 29%. This is pretty close to the 33% needed to hit the 2030 target. However, monthly sales are quite volatile so a single month’s figures aren’t very reliable. Using data for January through June (see chart above) shows a ZEV share of 24%, someway short. If the rate of uptake is increasing, this may not be too much of an issue, and the for the last few months this has been the case (March +22%, April +25%, May +27%, June +29%). If this trend continues we may be ok. I’ll be looking forward to next months release to see if this is the case! It’s a different matter for light goods vehicles though – the June 2026 share was just 11%. But does this mean we should roll back the mandate? Personally I don’t think so, that would send out the wrong signal in all sorts of ways, including a willingness to put short term profit ahead of people’ livelihoods and lives (bearing in mind that the death toll from the June heatwaves was around 25,000 across Europe and 2,200 in the UK). I have little sympathy for the car industry bearing in mind the lies they’ve told regarding diesel emissions and their keenness to push unnecessarily large and heavy SUVs with all their negative side-effects. They’ve had plenty of time to prepare for an EV world and should accept some corporate responsibility. In any case, reducing CO2 emissions is good for long term profitability – the car industry can make a measurable contribution to slowing down climate change and therefore also slowing down its effects on the economy and car sales. First posted on LinkedIn: https://lnkd.in/p/ea8Y8xjR
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