News analysis
ZEV mandate hindering fleets, AFP hears
The UK Government’s ZEV mandate, which was revised last month, is designed to encourage a greater proportion of EV sales.
Topics including the UK Government’s approach to incentivising EV sales and the impact of AI were discussed at the AFP’s annual conference. Sean Keywood reports.
he UK Government’s ZEV mandate is on course to hurt rather than help fleets, it has been said. Speaking at the Association of Fleet Professionals’ (AFP) annual conference, the organisation’s deputy chair Matthew Hammond said the policy was of no benefit to the sector. It was one of a range of topics discussed at the event, which also included the impact of AI on fleet management.
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The ZEV mandate, which requires manufacturers to sell a rising proportion of zero-emission vehicles each year or face fines, was revised last month with increased flexibilities, although the headline targets remain in place.
Changes included the extension of an existing flexibility allowing manufacturers to earn credits for cleaning up their non-ZEV fleet. Another extended flexibility allows manufacturers to ‘borrow’ credits from the future if they don’t meet the mandate target in a particular year, while a new flexibility allows manufacturers to exchange car and van credits.
The level of the fines for non-compliance has 8 | May/June 2025 |
www.businesscar.co.uk
also been reduced, from £15,000 to £12,000 for cars, and from £18,000 to £15,000 for vans. Hammond, also head of fleet for Altrad UK and a former Business Car Fleet Manager of the Year, said: “I think we’re got to be realistic and say the ZEV mandate does absolutely nothing for fleets. It doesn’t benefit fleets in any way, shape or form. It hinders fleets.
“We’ve got to face facts that at the moment, the drive to decarbonise fleets is our biggest generational challenge, but the government are just tinkering around and causing inconvenience to the industry, if I’m honest with you.” Hammond said that while each fleet represented at the conference would acknowledge that they
“At the moment, the drive to decarbonise fleets is our biggest generational challenge.”
needed to decarbonise, each fleet would face its own individual challenges.
He said: “Some fleets in here are well on the way. Some, like my own, we’re not, because of the nature of our fleet. We shouldn’t be penalised because we operate in a different way to [delivery fleets]. “Personally, I think that the whole premise around the ZEV mandate is wrong, I think it’s flawed, I think it’s a money grab against the OEMs and the OEMs are going to kick back. “These guys won’t just roll over and have their bellies tickled. They’ll kick back on it, and we’ll be the ones that suffer.
“So, the impact on fleets, I think it’s a bad move. I think it’s going to hurt the industry rather than help the industry.”
Also speaking at the conference, Harvey Perkins, co-founder of consultancy firm HRUX, blamed the ZEV mandate for a recent slowdown in the UK new car market.
He explained: “If you back to 2018, 2019 before Covid, the UK bought 2.5 million cars a year. Last year it was two million, the year before it was two
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