The UK’s ZEV Mandate is gets larger again in 2026, but the retail reality on the ground still looks like a tense tug of war between policy ambition and customer hesitation.
Dealers say they can feel the market at a pinch point with manufacturers improving range and charging speeds and finally bringing EVs down into more accessible segments and price points.
Across showrooms, the barriers remain frustratingly consistent. Price is still the headline objection, but behind that sits a more stubborn confidence problem.
Patchy charging provision, the hassle of upgrading electrical capacity and a steady drip of misinformation leaves customers uncertain about everything from battery life to real-world performance. That uncertainty is amplified by the politics of ownership costs.
Retailers talk about the buying cycle slowing the moment impending tax changes and future charging models enter the conversation, making it ever more difficult to explain the financial benefits of EV transition.
Even where demand exists, conversion is fragile. Some retailers say they can lose EV-curious prospects fast, which is why the best performers are now treating EV as a distinct sales journey with tailored follow-up, targeted education and active reassurance on charging, cost of ownership and residual value.
Others argue the bigger battle is earlier in the funnel: not convincing the curious, but creating more of them in the first place.
And then there’s the uncomfortable split-screen of the market. Used EVs under £20,000 are pulling attention away from new cars while hybrids remain an easier sell for stone-steppers.
The challenge for 2026 is not simply hitting a mandate number, it is managing mix, pipeline and messaging well enough so that customers can choose an EV with confidence.
AM asked several dealership leaders to assess their views on how 2026 is likely to shape up for their new car business. We spoke to Waylands chief executive John O’Hanlon, Tony Sciascia, managing director at Celtic Auto and Nathan Tomlinson, managing director at Devonshire Motors.
Across their responses, one thread keeps resurfacing: the industry is edging towards better products and better propositions, but the market will not be pushed faster than trust, infrastructure and affordability allow.
Their answers, spanning everything from first enquiry behaviour to tax anxiety and the hybrid safety net, point to a year where execution will matter as much as ambition.
ZEV and the growing gap, ambition vs reality
While manufacturers are finally moving closer to meeting the practical needs that keep mainstream buyers on the sidelines, Waylands’ O’Hanlon does not attempt to soften the starting point. “The ZEV target is rising again and the pace of the mandate is not waiting for consumer sentiment to catch up.”
“We know manufacturers are bringing in more product in lower segments that will mean that consumers can get into an EV at a much more affordable level,” he says. “We know that the manufacturers are developing cars with faster charging and longer range that will overcome these issues for certain customers.”
He is blunt about why this matters. In his view, the sector’s ability to sell EVs in volume depends on making the ownership experience feel normal, not niche. “We are moving to charge confidence and affordable prices like never before,” he adds.
But O’Hanlon draws a hard line on what 2026 cannot be built on. “Customers shouldn’t and won’t be forced into products that don’t meet their needs today,” he insists.
The statement is as much a warning as it is a diagnosis. If policy leans too heavily on targets without tackling the barriers that customers experience daily, the result is slower decision-making, weaker confidence and a longer conversion cycle.
For O’Hanlon, the state of charging availability and the economics of public charging remain a critical weak point. “The Government need to make better charging more available and affordable,” he says. “Anyone trying to deliver an electric capacity upgrade for chargers will understand the frustration of delivering it.”
He argues that the policy environment needs to be consistent and supportive through the transition, rather than inadvertently spooking buyers. “By raising the spectre of charges per miles and still retaining the full VAT rate on public charging we are undermining consumer confidence.”
Tomlinson at Devonshire Motors sees the same tension, but he widens the lens from product and infrastructure to the mechanics of retail itself. “The ZEV mandate is fundamentally reshaping new car retail, but not always in ways that align with consumer behaviour, nor in ways that allow OEMs or retailers to fully focus on pure transitional finesse,” he says.
His core point is that the mandate’s ambition and the realities of customer behaviour do not always meet neatly in the middle. “The disconnect between policy ambition and retail reality will be one of the defining challenges of 2026, as it has been since the ZEV mandate launched,” he argues.
In his view, the success metrics that matter most might not be the ones that dominate headlines. “Success will depend less on headline registrations and more on how intelligently retailers manage mix, pipeline and customer education.”
That education piece matters because the mandate is not a short-term bump. It is a trajectory. “EV adoption remains the clearest and most reliable indicator of longer-term opportunity and relevance for automotive retail,” Tomlinson adds. “How effectively retailers adapt now will define their future position in the market.”
Celtic Auto’s Sciascia boils the situation down to the day-to-day objections he hears repeatedly. “Price, infrastructure, misinformation and Government uncertainty,” he says.
Even in a market with ever more choice, he believes demand is still not moving fast enough to match the policy curve. “With the huge choice of EV in the market place, EV sales are still too slow,” he says.
“Feedback from my customers is saying that they believe EVs are still too expensive, there is insufficient charging infrastructure, they are misinformed in many areas and many think that Government policy will change meaning there is no reason to consider EV just yet.”
Across all three, the message is consistent. Product is improving, range anxiety is softening for some buyers and pricing is being addressed through structure rather than sticker. The mandate is climbing faster than confidence, however, and 2026 will expose how well retailers can bridge that gap.
Conversion gap, where EV curiosity leaks away
If the policy and product debate is the headline, the real battleground for dealers is turning interest into action. That is where conversations become either orders or hesitations.
Asked where EV-curious customers fall out of the journey, O’Hanlon points to the earliest stage. “I would say on first enquiry,” he says. His view is that the first contact matters more than many retailers assume, because it is where uncertainty either gets answered clearly or hardens into delay.
Waylands has responded by adjusting its process to treat EV customers differently from the outset. “We have adapted our sales process to include an EV sales journey,” O’Hanlon explains.
“This includes a tailored enquiry follow-up and a clear signposting of our resources.” In other words, the aim is to reduce friction early, before buyers build their own narratives from patchy online information.
He also stresses the value of communication that stays relevant to EV concerns. “These customers benefit from our eCRM where we will serve them EV-specific information during our contact journey,” he says.
Sciascia’s experience is slightly different, and it is revealing. He suggests that once buyers have genuinely crossed the psychological line, the rest often follows. “In my experience EV-curious customers tend to go on and buy EV because they have already taken the psychological step that EV can be a good thing,” he says.
For Sciascia, the greater challenge is not converting the curious, it is creating them at scale. “The challenge is to get more customers EV curious in the first place,” he adds.
That brings the discussion back to the kind of reassurance that helps buyers feel they are making a sensible choice rather than being pushed into an experiment.
Tomlinson’s emphasis on education fits here too. Retailers that treat EV selling as a simple product transaction are likely to struggle, particularly as targets rise and so it follows that sales teams need to be far more than order-takers.
Model mix, affordability crunch point
Curiosity inevitably circles back to product, especially at the entry points where most consumers shop. If the bulk of the market is psychologically anchored around a £20,000 budget, then a mandate that relies on EV volume will live or die on what is accessible.
Sciascia is emphatic about the gap. When asked whether he has enough affordable EV models in the pipeline to meet targets, he admits that his range of brands still lack a small, affordable car offering.
That product gap matters because the entry-level segment often supplies the widest pool of potential switchers. Without credible small cars and without pricing that feels familiar, many buyers will stay with ICE or drift toward used EVs or hybrids, and simply delay replacement.
O’Hanlon is more optimistic about the product plans he is hearing from his brand partners, but his answer still contains urgency. “We know that our brand partners have clear plans to bring in smaller EVs,” he says. Then he adds the sting in the tail. “However, we need them now.”
O’Hanlon also returns to the idea that the transition period needs support rather than punishment. “We are in a period of transition for the manufacturers that needs to be supported not penalised,” he says.
From his perspective, the pressure to hit targets is not the issue. The risk is that pressure is applied without the enabling conditions that make the target achievable.
List price matters less than monthly payments
When volume budgets cluster around £20,000, the battleground shifts from sticker price to the structure of financing an EV purchase.
Dealers see this daily: customers may walk in talking about price, but they often decide based on monthly cost, perceived risk and the comfort of knowing they can exit if the experience disappoints.
Sciascia says his manufacturing partners are leaning heavily on deposits and flexible structures. “Our manufacturing partners are pushing finance deposit contributions as their main marketing driver,” he says.
“Additionally, we are seeing more 50/50 finance options. Pay 50% now and 50% in two years. This has actually proven to be reasonably popular with our customer demographic.”
O’Hanlon makes a similar point but he states it even more plainly. “The truth is the vast majority of our customers do not buy on list price,” he says. “Many don’t know or care what the list price is. They are more concerned with the monthly payment.”
For retailers, making the sale is not always about cutting price. It is about building a proposition that feels safe: predictable costs, credible residuals and support that reduces worry about resale, servicing and long-term value.
“Our brands have recognised this and have created compelling offers that allow customers to transition to EV at the same or lower monthly costs,” O’Hanlon adds, explaining how the market is trying to solve affordability without relying on heavy discounting alone.
New vs used, the risk of cannibalisation
With used EV interest surging and far more used EVs available for less than £20,000, there is an obvious worry for any ZEV plan built on new registrations. If buyers can access credible EVs at lower price points through used stock, will they still buy new at the pace required?
O’Hanlon says the issue has not yet bitten hard for his business. “We are not experiencing this as a problem for us today,” he says. His view is that customer intent still tends to be segmented with most buyers arriving with a clear preference. “Customers generally have a bias to new or used,” he explains.
There is movement between the two, he admits, but it is often triggered by offers and value perception rather than an abstract preference for newness.
“Some used buyers can be swayed by a significant new car offer that appears more value on a monthly payment and some new buyers can be swayed by a very late plate car with a large saving,” O’Hanlon says.
Even then, he argues the deciding factors remain stable. “It will always come down to a budget and a monthly payment.”
Sciascia’s position is different, largely because his brands are not currently chasing EV volume at the same intensity. “Our manufacturers right now are not very active in the EV space,” he says.
He suspects that will change as product arrives. “Subaru is launching three new EV cars,” he adds, although he does not expect the used market to be a major competitive threat in the near term due to price positioning.
For retailers balancing ZEV compliance with commercial reality, the used EV question remains one to watch. The more the used market normalises EV ownership at accessible price points, the more pressure falls on new car propositions to feel competitive.
Tax changes and the confidence wobble
Ask dealers what knocks confidence sideways and it is no surprise that tax sits high on the list, especially where it feels like the direction of travel is shifting.
O’Hanlon argues that pricing signals matter, particularly when targets are already hard. “The increases of tax on EVs, in any way, is counter-intuitive to the key thrust of trying to hit the demanding ZEV targets,” he says.
In his view, even the perception of changing costs can slow the buying cycle. “Any changes – perceived or otherwise – slow down the buying cycle,” he adds.
He does acknowledge that policy can help as well as hinder. “The Electric Car Grant and the increased Expensive Car Supplement limit to £50,000 have both helped increase demand and confidence around the EV sector,” O’Hanlon reports.
Yet he returns to the need for retailers to lead with ownership economics, not just upfront price. “We now need to ensure that we can still have the cost of ownership conversation where, despite the extra tax, we can still demonstrate significant savings.”
Sciascia sees the same issue through a blunt customer reaction. “With the manufacturers I represent, I have seen customers not buy certain models for this very reason,” he says. “Many consumers cannot get their head around paying additional VED.”
On EVs, he believes the prospect of pay-per-mile only adds yet another reason to defer considering an EV. “It’s reduced the very little incentive that existed,” he insists.
He sees incentives and running cost savings as central to generating curiosity in the first place and worries that removing those narratives undermines the transition.
Margin vs momentum dilemma
Discounting may have eased from its peak, but for O’Hanlon at Waylands, the priority is demand creation rather than chasing the market down and eroding value.
He frames marketing and experience as key levers, from online to onsite. “Our marketing needs to be on the front foot. From our digital presence to physical facilities we need to be making the discovery of EVs as simple as possible.”
Waylands is using direct exposure to reduce anxiety and normalise EV ownership. “We regularly undertake roadshows of the product, placing the product in front of customers so they can see it for themselves and get more comfortable,” O’Hanlon says, explaining that the days of the early adopter are over.
Tomlinson at Devonshire Motors, too, stresses capability and credibility in the retailer network. “Sales teams have to educate and support, not just transact,” he says.
Timely investments and partnerships with EV-focused brands can build advantages that compound over time.
“Retailers who have invested early in EV-ready workshops, or are fortunate to partner with EV-focused brands, already have well-trained technicians and transparent customer communication, that seems to be more valuable year on year now,” he explains.
Those that did not invest early may still be able to sell cars today, but he warns of a creeping vulnerability. “Those who haven’t had that exposure not, just commercially but reputationally, are still able to operate but look increasingly fragile,” Tomlinson says.
He says that while hybrids remain a pressure valve in the transition, they are also a potential distraction from all-electric volume as they feel familiar while offering a narrative of new-generation progress.
For him, hybrids are not the end of the road, they are the bridge. “These customers will be the next full EV drivers,” he insists.
That idea of a stepped journey also intersects with messaging. What retailers say, how they say it, and how consistently they support it will shape whether customers move from ICE to full EV or simply settle into the middle ground.
So what would actually help EV sales in 2026?
When pushed to pick interventions that would most improve new EV retail in 2026, not one of these dealership leaders pretends there is a single fix. Their answers, however, show where they think the leverage lies.
Sciascia refuses to reduce the challenge to a single policy switch. “I think it would be very difficult to choose just one intervention as all are equally important,” he says.
He believes the transition still feels imposed on consumers rather than chosen by them and recommends a preferred route that is a combination of financial and informational support.
O’Hanlon is more specific and picks two. “If I was to pick: introduce a stronger grant for retail sales – the current grant is too limited – and improve our charging offering for daily usage of the cars.”
The logic is straightforward: reduce the price barrier and remove the day-to-day friction that still keeps buyers on the fence.
Taken together, their message on 2026 is consistent. The industry can see the pathway, and retailers are adapting fast. They are refining processes, reshaping finance propositions, improving education, and trying to normalise EV discovery for mainstream customers.
But unless affordability, infrastructure and confidence rise in step with the ZEV mandate, the year ahead will be defined less by targets on paper and more by what customers will actually say yes to in the showroom.