The combustion-engined car could be about to get a stay of execution in the UK. Sales of ICE vehicles were due to be outlawed from 2030 under plans laid out by former PM Boris Johnson, but reports suggest his successor, Rishi Sunak, is about to push back the ban to 2035.
That new date – still unconfirmed, but first reported by BBC News and likely to be announced by a PM speech on Friday – would bring the UK into line with the 2035 timeframe laid out by European countries that are part of the EU. The rumoured rowback is one of several ways Sunak and his government is considering watering down on previous climate pledges designed to help it reach net zero emissions by 2050.
Sunak hinted at the change in a statement: “I am proud that Britain is leading the world on climate change. We are committed to net zero by 2050 and the agreements we have made internationally – but doing so in a better, more proportionate way.” He suggested that governments “have not been honest about the costs and trade offs” of flagship green policies, hoodwinking the public into thinking it could have its cake and eat it.
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The PM has been under pressure from rightwing Conservative backbench MPs to dilute existing climate plans ahead of a general election that’s expected to take place next year. Some sections of the UK car industry had also questioned the viability of the government’s original plan, which, as it stands, will allow only sales of electric cars and certain hybrid vehicles after 2035.
Though the ICE ban isn’t the only part of the climate pledge under threat – Sunak is also allegedly considering slowing down the phasing out of household gas boilers – it’s the automotive angle that’s making all the headlines. Sunak’s Conservative party recently won a parliamentary election to find a new MP for Boris Johnson’s old seat, largely off the back of opposition to an expansion of London’s ultra-low emission zone scheme, and will see this rollback of the 2030 ban on ICE cars as another way to win support from drivers who don’t want to be forced into EVs and hybrids.