Ford and Vauxhall struggle to meet electric car targets

Low electric car sales at Ford and Vauxhall have sent the market share of Britain’s historically most popular motoring brands to multi-decade lows as manufacturers struggle to meet the demands of the statutory zero-emission vehicle mandate.

This week Vertu Motors, Britain’s largest listed motor dealer, said it was struggling to access in-demand petrol or hybrid cars from some manufacturers because they were restricting supply to boost their chances of hitting zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate quotas and avoid tens or even hundreds of millions of pounds of penalties.

The mandate dictates that all car manufacturers deliver 22 per cent of their sales in 2024 as all-electric vehicles. If a manufacturer fails to hit the target they could be fined £15,000 for every car under the threshold.

Latest monthly sales figures out this week will indicate that Ford, whose electric car sales account for 3 per cent of all deliveries this year, and Vauxhall, which has only been selling 10 per cent of its cars as all-electric, are among those most impacted.

Both companies have been outspoken about the mandate and said they would restrict the number of petrol or diesel cars they supply to the UK to raise their proposition of electric sales.

Ford, hitherto the longstanding UK market leader, has seen its share of the new car market fall to 5.5 per cent, overtaken by the German brands Volkswagen, BMW and Audi as well as Kia of South Korea.

Vauxhall, the longstanding bridesmaid of the market, second only to Ford since the 1970s, has joined the also-rans with a historic low share of 4.5 per cent of the market. Four decades ago, Ford and Vauxhall shared nearly half the UK motoring retail market.

Ford’s new car sales this year are down 23 per cent and Vauxhall’s down 10 per cent compared with last year in a market that is up year on year by 5.5 per cent.

Robert Forrester, the chief executive of Vertu, said this week: “There’s a restriction on supply of petrol cars and hybrid cars, which is actually where the demand is. The manufacturers are trying to avoid the fines. So they’re constraining the ability for us to supply petrol cars to try to keep to the targets.”

One leading motor retail executive said the situation was set to get worse. “In 2025, the ZEV mandate quota rises to 28 per cent of all sales. There are a number of manufacturers which are raising the white flag on that as they know they have no hope of hitting the target.”

Not all manufacturers are having trouble complying with the mandate. BMW is understood to be selling 30 per cent of its cars in the UK as electric and could overtake Tesla as the biggest seller of zero-emission vehicles in Britain by the end of the year. Mercedes-Benz is believed to be selling about 25 per cent of its cars as electric.

Both the German manufacturers are taking advantage of their historic strength in the company car and fleet market where electric vehicles sales have continued to grow well because of tax incentives and salary-sacrifice schemes.

Sales of electric cars to private motorists are struggling because the government has scrapped all financial incentives, the capital cost of electric cars is higher than their petrol equivalents and UK consumers are struggling with the impact of inflation and higher interest rates.