The government "has a long way to go" to achieve its aim of transforming the car market to selling only 100 per cent electric vehicles (EVs) within 15 years, and to ensure almost every car on the road is zero emissions by 2050, the UK's public spending watchdog has warned.
Assessing the government's ambitions to decarbonise Britain's roads, the National Audit Office (NAO) said a huge amount of work was still needed to prepare drivers and the auto market for rapid green transition, and urged Ministers to draw up a detailed roadmap with clear milestones through to 2050.
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A lack of long-term certainty over the government's plans for low emission and electric vehicles, as well as associated charging infrastructure, has "hindered investment planning", the NAO said.
Moreover, while the government's Office for Zero Emission Vehicles (OZEV) has provided £1.1bn in grants to encourage drivers to buy EVs and install charging points, the NAO said the agency still "cannot clearly demonstrate the cumulative impact the grant has had on the growth of ultra-low emission cars above and beyond what might have happened anyway".
The NAO therefore urged OZEV, the Department for Transport (DfT), and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) to come together to develop a long-term strategy to decarbonise road vehicles and report regularly on progress against clear milestones.
"The number of ultra-low emission cars on UK roads has increased, but meeting the government's ambitious targets to phase out new petrol and diesel cars in less than a decade still requires a major transition for consumers, car makers and those responsible for charging infrastructure," said NAO head Gareth Davies. "Government now has the opportunity to reflect on what has gone well and better target its interventions and spending to secure this fundamental change and deliver the carbon reduction required."
Last year the government announced that sales of new pure petrol and diesel cars would be banned from 2030, before plug-in hybrid cars are phased out five years later, giving the car industry a decade to shift towards manufacturing solely electric vehicles for the UK market.
But while sales of EVs are surging in the UK with more and more battery car models being developed by automotive brands, they still make up just eight per cent of the auto market, while only 0.5 per cent of cars on the roads today are pure-electric.
Meanwhile, transport remains the highest emitting sector of the UK economy, with road transport making up the lion's share of these greenhouse gas emissions and growing.
As such "substantial growth" in the market for ultra-low emission and electric vehicles are needed over the next 10 to 15 years, backed by a growth in supportive EV charging infrastructure up and down the country and effective price incentives, the NAO said.
In response to the new report, the DfT said it would be setting out a plan later this year to deliver on its 2030 phase out date, in a bid to help the UK "meet our climate change obligations, improve air quality and support economic growth".
In a statement, it insisted the government was "going further and faster to decarbonise transport" by setting the 2030 fossil fuel car phase-out date, arguing the target would help put the UK "at the forefront of the electric vehicle revolution".
"Ultra-low emission vehicles (ULEVs) now represent nearly 11 per cent of the new car market," the DfT statement said. "Alongside the billions we are investing to support industry and consumers to make the switch to cleaner vehicles, we are proud to be a global leader in the development and manufacture of ULEVs."
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