Leading UK businesses, including BT Group, Royal Mail and Openreach push the Government to set targets for Zero Emission Vehicles (ZEVs) to clean up the UK’s roads in order to meet the 2030 targets to phase-out petrol and diesel cars.

On behalf of the UK Electric Fleets Coalition, a group of 28 leading UK businesses with some of the largest fleets in the UK, Climate Group is calling for an ambitious ZEV mandate in a response to the third and final consultation on the issue.

Climate Group is urging the government to set bolder sales targets for cars and vans to encourage supply of electric vehicles (EVs) – the most efficient ZEV available with no emissions at the tailpipe - and give confidence to leading businesses that are already investing in the technology.

Many businesses are ready to invest in electric vehicles. However, there has been a supply shortage in the UK’s commercial van sector, meaning businesses are unable to secure the EVs that meet their provision in the quantity they need.

Climate Group claim the way to accelerating businesses adoption to go electric will be led to by mandating that manufacturers sell more EVs, with stronger interim targets for sales in 2024 and 2027.

The UK’s ZEV mandate should also be simple, the organisation said – “consistent across the Home Nations with limited flexibilities and loopholes. A UK-wide ZEV mandate makes life much easier for businesses, who have warehouses and depots all over the UK?”

Switching to zero emission needs to be adopted at a faster rate to meet the UK’s net zero targets, in order to clean up our air and mitigate climate change. With road transport accounting for approximately a fifth of total UK emissions there is an urgency to switch to ZEV.

A strong, ambitious ZEV mandate will speed up EV adoption and support businesses already investing in their electric fleets to go fully electric even faster.