UK EV Target Review 2026: What Has Changed for Petrol and Hybrid Cars
Update log (1)
- — The consultation opened on 14 August 2026 and closes on 23 October 2026. Until it closes and the government responds, the existing quotas remain in force — including this year's 33% for cars and 24% for vans.
- No target has been cut. On 14 August 2026 the government opened a consultation, running 10 weeks to 23 October, asking whether the yearly quotas manufacturers must hit between 2027 and 2035 should be reduced. Nothing in the mandate changes while it runs.
- The two dates most people care about are not in the review. New petrol and diesel cars still end in 2030, and all new cars and vans must be zero emission from 2035. Those are the government’s stated end goals and they are unchanged.
- Hybrids already have until 2035. That was settled in April 2025, when full hybrids and plug-in hybrids were given until 2035 in cars, petrol and diesel vans were given the same, and small-volume makers such as McLaren and Aston Martin were exempted.
- This year’s quota is 33% of new cars and 24% of new vans, rising to 80% and 70% by 2030. The government says manufacturers are on track for 2026, which is the backdrop to a review it says is about keeping the targets practical.
The UK has not cut its electric car targets. On 14 August 2026 the government opened a consultation asking whether it should — a review running 10 weeks, closing on 23 October 2026, while the existing rules stay exactly as they are.
That distinction matters more than the headlines suggest, because the two dates most drivers actually plan around are not in the review at all.
Have the UK’s EV targets been cut?
No. A consultation has opened, and nothing in the mandate changes while it runs. The review asks whether the yearly quotas that manufacturers must meet between 2027 and 2035 should be reduced.
The Department for Transport’s announcement is explicit that the destination is unchanged. Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said: “It’s right we keep targets under review to ensure they’re practical and back British industry.” Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds described the exercise as “listening to industry, examining the evidence and making sure the mandate continues supporting investment.”
What is actually in the review, and what is not?
In: the yearly percentages between 2027 and 2035. Out: the 2030 and 2035 end dates.
| Question | Status |
|---|---|
| Yearly quotas 2027–2035 | Under review |
| New petrol and diesel cars end 2030 | Not changing |
| All new cars and vans zero emission by 2035 | Not changing |
| Hybrids on sale until 2035 | Already settled |
| This year’s quota | In force |
If the government does soften the middle of the curve, the effect is on how fast manufacturers must get there — not on when the road ends.
What are the current ZEV mandate targets?
33% of new cars and 24% of new vans this year, rising to 80% and 70% by 2030. These are the legislated percentages each manufacturer must hit across its own sales.
| Year | Cars | Vans |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 22% | 10% |
| 2025 | 28% | 16% |
| 2026 | 33% | 24% |
| 2027 | 38% | 34% |
| 2028 | 52% | 46% |
| 2029 | 66% | 58% |
| 2030 | 80% | 70% |
Between 2031 and 2034 the car figures usually quoted — 84%, 88%, 92% and 96% — are indicative rather than fixed in legislation, which is part of why the consultation reaches to 2035. The government says manufacturers are on track to meet the 2026 target.
Note what the quota is and is not: it is an obligation on manufacturers, enforced across their sales mix, with fines and credit flexibilities attached. It has never been a restriction on what you are allowed to buy.
What can you still buy new, and until when?
Every fuel type on sale today remains on sale for years, and hybrids have the longest runway. This is the part of the picture that was settled in April 2025, before the current review existed.
| Vehicle | Last new sale |
|---|---|
| Petrol and diesel cars | 2030 |
| Full and plug-in hybrid cars | 2035 |
| Petrol and diesel vans | 2035 |
| Hybrid vans | 2035 |
So a buyer today is choosing between a car type with at least four more model years of new sales and one with at least nine.
What already changed in April 2025?
The rules were loosened once already, and those changes are in force now. They are not part of the current consultation, which is why they are easy to confuse with it.
- Hybrids extended to 2035. Full hybrids and plug-in hybrid cars can be sold new until 2035, rather than stopping in 2030 with pure petrol and diesel.
- Vans given the same runway. Petrol, diesel and hybrid vans all run to 2035.
- More room to manoeuvre for manufacturers. They can shift more of their EV sales into later years, transfer credits between cars and vans in both directions, and the non-ZEV to ZEV transfer was extended through 2029 with higher early-year caps, alongside expanded borrowing.
- Small makers exempted. Small and micro-volume manufacturers, including McLaren and Aston Martin, sit outside the mandate.
Can you respond to the consultation?
Yes — it is open to the public, not just to the industry. The government has invited manufacturers, suppliers, charge point operators, dealers, consumers and communities to submit views, and it closes on 23 October 2026.
That is ten weeks from the launch date. If you have a view on how fast the quota should rise, that is the mechanism, and it is the only part of this story you can personally act on before the outcome is decided.
Will petrol and hybrid cars hold their value?
We do not publish forecasts of what any asset will be worth, and a car is no exception. That includes our own view and anyone else’s, so this section will not tell you what to expect from residual values.
What can be said is what is fixed, because those are facts rather than projections:
- New petrol and diesel cars are scheduled to stop being sold in 2030, and new hybrids in 2035.
- Nothing announced restricts owning, driving, servicing or reselling a petrol or hybrid car after those dates. The mandate governs what manufacturers may sell new.
- The dates in question were not changed on 14 August, and cannot change during a consultation that has only just opened.
If you want a valuation, the people who publish them are the trade guides used by dealers, and they charge for it. What this page can honestly give you is the policy calendar those valuations are reacting to.
What this article does not tell you
Whether the quotas will actually be reduced. The consultation has ten weeks to run and the government has not said what it will conclude, so any figure you see for a revised 2030 target is somebody’s expectation rather than a decision.
It does not tell you what the government will do about the 2031 to 2034 percentages, which are not fixed in law today. It does not tell you what any of this does to prices, new or used. And it does not tell you that the targets are safe — a review that asks whether targets should be lowered is a real question, and the answer arrives after 23 October.
How we verified this
The headline claim in circulation — that the UK has cut its EV targets — is not what happened on 14 August. The government opened a consultation. The Department for Transport’s own announcement describes a review of the pathway, gives a closing date of 23 October 2026, and quotes the Transport Secretary saying the end goal has not changed. We have written the article around that distinction because the difference between “under review” and “cut” is the whole story for anyone making a decision this autumn.
We do not forecast used-car values, and this article contains no such forecast. A car is an asset with a market price, and this site does not publish predictions of future prices or price direction for anything with one — ours or anyone else’s. The question of whether petrol and hybrid cars will hold their value is addressed below by setting out what is actually fixed, which is a different thing from a valuation call.
The quota table is the mandate’s published schedule. The percentages for 2024 to 2030 are the legislated figures for cars and vans. The 2031 to 2034 car figures that circulate — 84, 88, 92 and 96 — are indicative rather than fixed in legislation, and we have labelled them that way rather than printing them as law.
The April 2025 changes are already in force and are not part of this review. Those are what extended full hybrids and plug-in hybrids to 2035 for cars, extended petrol and diesel vans to 2035, added the credit-transfer and borrowing flexibilities, and exempted small and micro-volume manufacturers.
Ministerial quotes are given verbatim and attributed. We have not characterised the government’s motives beyond what it published, and we have not repeated industry claims about the effect of the mandate as though they were findings.
We have not priced the consultation’s outcome. No prediction appears here about whether the quotas will in fact be reduced, by how much, or when the government will respond.