Major carmakers privately lobbied the UK government to revoke a ban on new petrol and diesel cars after 2035, according to documents that reveal for the first time the efforts to overturn a key decarbonisation policy.
BMW, Ford, Nissan and Toyota, plus the parts maker Bosch, wrote a joint letter to ministers in April calling for an “open technology approach” including petrol and diesel cars after 2035, when the government had said new cars must produce zero carbon emissions.
The letter was obtained by The Fast Charge newsletter via a freedom of information request and shared with the Guardian.
The companies wrote that the government should allow “highly efficient ICE [internal combustion engines], hybrids, plug-in hybrids, range extenders and combustion engines when utilising green steel and sustainable fuels” beyond 2035. All those technologies produce carbon dioxide by burning fuel, as well as other harmful pollutants.
The 2035 ban on sales of new petrol and diesel cars is a cornerstone policy in cutting the UK’s carbon emissions. The switch to electric vehicles is the single biggest contributor to cutting UK carbon pollution in the next decade, according to the government’s Climate Change Committee.
A government spokesperson said the 2035 ban was not up for negotiation. Yet successive governments have weakened battery EV policies.
Labour has already introduced “flexibilities” into electric vehicle targets that run up to 2030. The government is now considering further changes to the rules, known as the zero emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate, after strong lobbying by carmakers.
The suggestion of revoking the 2035 ban was heavily criticised by campaigners and Polestar, an EV brand.
Matt Galvin, managing director of Polestar UK, said: “Reversing the transition to pure electric vehicles in the middle of a climate emergency would be a historic policy failure. The technology exists, consumers are embracing it and the economic case is becoming stronger every year. There is simply no justification for prolonging our dependence on petrol and diesel.
“Rather than reopening the door to new petrol and diesel sales, policymakers should be accelerating the transition by removing the barriers that still prevent millions of drivers from switching.”
The manufacturers have sway with the government because they employ 30,000 people in the UK. BMW owns the Mini factory in Oxford and Rolls-Royce in West Sussex, Nissan has the largest UK car factory in Sunderland, and Ford has factories in Dagenham near London and Merseyside.
The companies said in the letter that a “multipath strategy” should match the EU, which weakened its own electric car targets in December to enforce 90% electric car sales after 2035, down from 100% before. The letter requested a meeting with the then ministers for Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland to discuss the mandate, suggesting that carmakers were trying to build up broad support for diluting the targets.
The companies believed that the extra emissions could be offset by using lower-carbon steel and “e-fuels” – petrol made using green electricity. However, experts say e-fuels are not viable on a large scale because of massive energy wastage.
Critics of European car industry lobbying say the continued sale of internal combustion engine cars could backfire, with fierce competition from Chinese electric carmakers in particular.
Colin Walker, head of transport at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, a thinktank, said carmakers battling against the transition “looks like a case of King Canute trying to hold back the tide”.
“For the UK car industry a failure to make the transition quickly enough risks factories and communities being left behind, ultimately putting jobs in peril,” he said. “There is simply no technology that can rival electrification when it comes to reducing emissions and offering significantly lower running costs.”
A Department for Transport spokesperson said: “We remain committed to phasing out all new non-zero-emission car and van sales by 2035.
“The UK EV market is strong and growing, with sales up 35% on June last year, and we’re backing manufacturers through our £2bn electric car grant, which is boosting sales and helping more drivers into EVs.
“We’ve committed to review the mandate by 2027.”
BMW, Bosch, Nissan and Toyota all said the targets should be matched to customer demand, and that they were committed to decarbonisation.
BMW said it has “concerns about the trajectory of the ZEV mandate as the sales requirements for 2026 and beyond do not reflect current levels of consumer demand”. A Bosch spokesperson said: “Supporting all technologies that can reduce CO2 emissions provides the best opportunity for the sector to achieve decarbonisation.”
A Nissan spokesperson said it remains committed to a “fully electric future” but asked for a more gradual transition to battery sales.
A Toyota spokesperson said the government should “remain open-minded” because demand did not match the mandate. He added: “We view carbon as the enemy and are pursuing a multi-pathway strategy that addresses consumers’ mobility needs and enables customers to reduce their emissions as much as possible, as quickly as possible.”
Ford was approached for comment.
