Xavier Martinet, President of the carmaker’s European arm, claimed the Government’s zero emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate no longer made sense and needed to be rethought.
Without change, he said the policy could cause manufacturers to become loss-making and prompt some to stop selling both internal combustion engine (ICE) and electric cars in the UK.
Britain is Hyundai’s biggest market in Europe. UK drivers bought more than 93,000 of the marque’s cars last year.
Under the ZEV mandate, carmakers must ensure 33% of the vehicles they sell are electric or potentially face fines of up to £12,000 per vehicle. The proportion rises gradually to 80% by 2030, when the sale of new petrol and diesel cars will also be banned.
Some flexibilities have been built into the scheme already following concessions by Labour. But to comply with the stretching targets the industry is still having to spend around £11,000 per car on discounts, Martinet said.
Many manufacturers have said they are being forced to subsidise the discounts on EVs with sales from petrol and diesel cars.
Martinet told the Telegraph: “The UK market is in danger of having a severe disruption in the coming years, because if some manufacturers cannot afford or decide not to push the EV mandate, you’ll have an issue.
“And if you don’t sell EVs, you might not do even do the ICE sales. So what will customers buy, at the end of the day? That’s a major question.” …<<<Read More>>>...