Confirmed: Hybrid cars to remain on sale until 2035

Hybrid cars including the Nissan Qashqai e-Power and Toyota Prius will remain on sale until 2035, under new changes to the Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) mandate announced yesterday.

In addition, low-volume car makers – including sports car brands Aston Martin and McLaren  – will be exempt from needing to achieve the current target of 80% electric car sales by 2030. Plus, all car makers will be able to ‘trade’ credits between cars and vans to help them meet the ZEV mandate targets.

The Government says it is backing British car brands – including Land Rover, Rolls-Royce and Vauxhall – by making changes to the mandate. A relaxing of the ZEV mandate rules was teased back in November by business secretary Jonathan Reynolds, who told a motor industry event that the previous EV policies “clearly aren’t working as envisaged, and we understand the urgency of finding a solution.”

According to the current mandate, 28% of new car sales must be electric this year, rising to 52% in 2028.

Responding to a What Car? request for comment, the Department for Transport refused to give more clarity on what criteria it was using to decide what sort of hybrid technologies could remain on sale, only noting that a list is being worked on for when the new legislation is brought forward, which should be within the coming months.

However, speaking at a Jaguar Land Rover factory in Solihull on Monday afternoon, Keir Starmer confirmed that both regular, 'self-charging' hybrids and plug-in hybrids could remain on sale until 2035.

It's important to note that the Toyota Prius and cars powered by Nissan’s e-Power technology – which are directly named in the announcement – represent two different technologies.

The Prius is a plug-in hybrid with an official electric-only range of up to 44 miles. That's different to previous versions of the car which were regular 'self-charging' hybrids which could cover shorter distances without needing to be plugged in. 

Nissan’s e-Power technology is different, in that it features a petrol engine which solely exists to charge the batteries of the car. That means the petrol engine never directly powers the car’s wheels, and the car drives in much the same way as a fully electric model. The technology is currently available in both the Nissan Qashqai and Nissan X-Trail SUVs.

With the confirmation that both plug-in and non-plug-in hybrid cars can remain on sale, current models including the What Car? Award-winning Hyundai Santa Fe seven-seat SUV, Lexus LBX small SUV, and Toyota Corolla and Renault Clio hatchbacks will be able to survive until 2035.

Previously, the Government has said that only hybrids which could travel 'substantially' on electric power would survive, without noting whether that meant a substantial distance on electric power alone, or a substantial amount of time spent in electric mode.

Alongside this announcement, the Government has confirmed that the 2030 ban on new cars powered solely by petrol or diesel will remain in place. And following this clarification, it looks like mild hybrid cars – which receive small amounts of electrical assistance to help lower your fuel bills – will not survive beyond that date.

Starmer said that the changes will “ensure home-grown firms can export British cars built by British workers around the world and the industry can look forward with confidence, as well as back with pride.”

Under the changes, car makers will be able to more flexibly choose how they meet the ZEV mandate targets, which call for an increasing percentage of electric car sales up until 2030. Manufacturers will be able to transfer non-electric car sales to electric car sales up until 2029, though caps will be put in place to limit its use.

In addition, manufacturers who produce both vans and cars – such as Nissan and Vauxhall – will be able to transfer credits towards meeting the targets between the two classes of vehicle. Selling one electric van will be equal to selling two electric cars, while one electric car sale will be equal to selling 0.4 electric vans.

The announcement can be seen as a show of support to the UK car industry during what Keir Starmer has referred to as a “transformed” global trading environment. The United States recently imposed tariffs of up to 25% on all goods being imported into the country – making it more expensive to sell cars there.

How has the car industry responded?

Responding to the announcements, the Stellantis group of brands – which represents Citroën, Fiat, Peugeot and Vauxhall said that it welcomed the changes, but that “there is still a need to address market demand and introduce measures to stimulate it.”

Similarly, the National Franchised Dealer Association noted that while the changes are “a step in the right direction,” more needs to be done to incentivize the sale of electric cars to consumers.

The latest figures show that while March was the single biggest month ever for electric car sales, they still represented just 15.2% of the market total – well behind the ZEV mandate targets. In addition, the majority of EV sales continue to come from company car fleets and businesses rather than private buyers.

The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, which represents the views of the motor industry to the Government, said that "given the potentially severe headwinds facing manufacturers following the introduction of US tariffs, greater action will almost certainly be needed to safeguard our industry’s competitiveness."

Read more: Best hybrid cars you don't have to plug in 

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