The threat of fines has prompted the mighty German automotive industry to step up production of electrics, and the market in Germany is now bigger than California, the home of the US electric car firm Tesla. “The targets have been made easier to achieve by a depressed total market, meaning fewer plug-ins have to be registered in order to meet compliance levels, and secondly by governments’ willingness to increase purchase and fiscal incentives in light of the coronavirus pandemic.” Matthias Schmidt, the Berlin-based analyst who collated the data, said: “The main driver of the market has undoubtably been manufacturers’ race to reach new average CO 2 fleet emission targets, phased in this year. Total UK and European new car sales in the year to October were 13.3m, the vast majority of which had petrol and diesel engines, which are expected to be more profitable than battery cars until about 2024.Ĭarmakers are keen to sell more battery electric cars because they face steep fines if they do not lower the average carbon dioxide emissions of the cars they sell. However, the car industry still faces a steep uphill journey away from fossil fuels.
Other countries including France and Norway have also introduced plans to ban new internal combustion engines over varying timeframes. In the UK, the sale of new cars that run solely on petrol or diesel will be banned in 2030 – although new hybrids will be legal until 2035.
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