Nissan has confirmed that the U.K.’s requirement for manufacturers to sell an increasing percentage of electric vehicles played a big part in its decision to only offer battery-powered vehicles from 2030 in Europe.
Nissan previously promised to only offer electrified vehicles by 2030, which could have included full- and plug-in hybrids.
The U.K. government last week announced it was sticking to its proposed zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate that requires manufacturers to sell 22 percent EVs starting next year, rising to 80 percent in 2030 and 100 percent in 2035.
The news came a week after U.K. prime minister Rishi Sunak announced he was rolling back the original 2030 ban on the sale of new pure combustion engine vehicles to 2035, angering automakers such as Ford that have a more accelerated timetable for phasing out cars that run on fossil fuels.
Despite Sunak’s decision, Nissan last week announced in London it would no longer sell cars with combustion engines in Europe starting in 2030, citing the U.K.’s ZEV mandate as the more important driver for switching to EVs.
“The ZEV mandate [for 2030] remains. We t.ook our decision with this milestone” in mind, Nissan’s head of Europe, Guillaume Cartier, told journalists days ahead of the U.K. government’s announcement.
Nissan is the U.K.’s biggest manufacturer of vehicles alongside JLR (formerly Jaguar Land Rover) and was a potential beneficiary of the U.K.’s date change for the outright ban of combustion cars to 2035.
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The mandate, however, restricts combustion engine sales to just 20 percent of cars and 30 percent of vans by 2030, and with a potential further tightening ahead of the 2035 ban.
“The critical point that will determine customer behaviour is total cost of ownership. If it’s more favorable for an EV they will go for an EV,” Cartier said, citing Nissan’s internal data showing high customer satisfaction with electric cars.
The mandate announcement was welcomed by Ford, which plans to stop selling combustion engine vehicles in Europe by 2030.
"Ford has backed plans for a U.K. zero-emission vehicle mandate because it provides a strong investment signal to infrastructure providers to accelerate installation of new charge points," Ford's U.K. chair, Lisa Brankin, said in a statement.
The confirmation of the mandate was given a more cautious welcome by U.K. automotive lobby group the SMMT, which has been critical of the government for being slow to confirm the mandate ahead of its introduction in 2024.
“With less than 100 days to go, manufacturers finally have clarity,” SMMT CEO Mike Hawes said in a statement. “Delivering the mandate will challenge the industry.”
Hawes called for a range of incentives to ensure that that customer demand matched the increasing number of EVs being launched by automakers.
“We need a buoyant market,” he said.
Automakers that exceed the targets can trade with those that will not meet the percentage requirements. Companies can also “borrow a limited number of ZEV allowances from future periods if they are unable to achieve compliance from their own sales,” the government said in published guidance.
The amount they can borrow can amount to 75 percent of the target in 2024, 50 percent in 2025 and 25 percent in 2026. The government said the borrowing “must be repaid with 3.5 percent annual interest to maintain carbon savings.”
Automakers can also earn ZEV credits if they sell EVs to car sharing operators. The cash penalty for selling fewer EVs than mandated will be 15,000 pounds ($18,280) per non-ZEV car and 18,000 pounds ($21,940) per non-ZEV van.
Automakers that sell more than the mandated amount of EVs can also use the excess to offset against their targets for average carbon dioxide emissions for combustion engine sales during the first three years, giving those selling heavier gasoline and diesel models some leeway.
“Micro volume” manufacturers selling fewer than 1,000 cars or vans per year will be exempt.
