Labour has been urged to ban the sale of new hybrid cars by 2030 amid concerns that their continued availability will damage the UK’s shift to electric vehicles (EVs).
In October 2023, the Conservative government under Rishi Sunak reduced ambitions on a number of green policies, including postponing the ban on sales of new petrol and diesel vehicles until 2035. But Labour reinstated the 2030 ban once it took power in the summer, following commitments made in the manifesto.
Nevertheless, in December reports emerged that Labour was considering pushing the ban on hybrids back by five years as consumer adoption of EVs has been slower than anticipated.
Now, the head of industry lobby group Electric Vehicles UK (EVUK) has said such a move would be highly damaging for the sector.
“The inclusion of full hybrid technology would be a catastrophic misstep and make a laughing stock of the UK government’s world-leading zero-emission vehicle policy,” Dan Caesar, the group’s chief executive, told the...