What does the pledge mean?

In its 2024 manifesto, Labour said: “Labour will support the transition to electric vehicles … restoring the phase-out date of 2030 for new cars with internal combustion engines.”

A car with an internal combustion engine (ICE) is powered by burning fuel—typically petrol or diesel. Hybrid cars are powered by a battery as well. And of course not all vehicles are cars. There are vans, lorries, coaches, motorcycles and other types too.

In January, the government said its phase-out pledge meant “no new petrol or diesel cars will be sold after 2030”. In April it clarified that pledge, saying new cars “will need to be hybridised in some manner—or be zero emission”, and also that small volume manufacturers would be exempted from this requirement.

The government also pledged that “all new cars and vans will need to be 100% zero emission by 2035”.

Second-hand vehicles are not affected.

As things stand, a slower version of this plan is already enshrined in law under what is called the Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) Mandate.

These regulations set legally-binding quotas for the proportion of cars manufactured to be zero emission from the tailpipe, requiring 80% per year by 2030 and 100% by 2035.

This timeframe, which was introduced by the government of Rishi Sunak, loosened the 2030 target brought forward by Boris Johnson, which itself had tightened the 2040 target set by Theresa May.

What progress has been made?

We are currently rating this pledge as “wait and see”. A Department for Transport (DfT) spokesperson told us in July 2025 that legislation to set binding targets for the proportion of zero emission vehicles to be sold will be set out in due course.

As noted above, the government has introduced an important exemption. Following a consultation in January 2025, the government made a series of changes to the ZEV Mandate in April 2025. These included exempting microvolume and small manufacturers, such as Aston Martin and McLaren, from the 2030 deadline. These are defined as manufacturers that register fewer than 1,000 and 2,500 new cars a year respectively.

The DfT told us the changes “strike a practical balance by cutting emissions, giving clarity to industry, and growing our economy”.

This exemption means not all new cars are covered by the 2030 phaseout, as some green groups have pointed out, and there was no mention of any such exemption in the manifesto pledge. However, given the exemption has not been the main focus of concern we’ve seen from campaign groups, and the volume of cars exempted will be relatively low, we’ve decided not to rate this pledge as “Not kept” on that basis.

A DfT spokesperson told us it is measuring progress against this pledge with vehicle registration data published by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA).

According to the most recent DVLA data, 19.1% of all new car registrations were zero emission in 2024.

In July 2025, the government announced a £650 million Electric Car Grant scheme, which will give discounts of up to £3,750 at the point of sale for new eligible electric cars priced at or under £37,000.