The Department for Transport (DfT) has published the first compliance report for the Vehicle Emissions Trading Schemes (VETS), the framework that underpins the UK’s Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) mandate.
It shows the new car market achieved a 24.3% compliance level against a 2024 target of 22% when all compliance routes were taken into account.
The van market achieved 11.5% against a 10% target.
Across the car market, 19.8% of new registrations were zero emission vehicles.
Manufacturers also reduced average non-zero emission car CO2 output by 7.3% compared with baseline levels through hybrid, plug-in hybrid and more efficient petrol and diesel models.
For vans, 6.8% of registrations were zero-emission vehicles, while average CO2 emissions from non-zero emission vans fell by 7.6% compared with baseline levels.
The fact OZEV has confirmed OEMs have been compliant with the current ZEV mandate compliance system in place stands in contrast to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders’ (SMMT) repeated calls for a rethink on ZEV and the transition to EVs.
Because the overall car and van markets were over-compliant, no manufacturer was required to make a final compliance payment.
The report also shows that manufacturers banked allowances for use in future scheme years as ZEV mandate targets increase.
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Combination of factors led to compliance
The report shows that manufacturers relied on a combination of EV sales, lower CO2 vehicles and the flexibilities built into the scheme to achieve compliance.
These flexibilities include trading allowances between manufacturers, banking credits for future years and converting CO2 reductions into additional ZEV credits.
Car makers used the CO2-to-ZEV conversion mechanism to generate the equivalent of 4.7% additional ZEV registrations and borrowed the equivalent of 1.2%. Van makers generated the equivalent of 5.3% additional ZEV registrations through conversion and borrowed 0.2%.
Manufacturers traded around 39,000 car allowances, equal to 2.1% of total car registrations. Around 200 van allowances were traded, equal to 0.1% of van registrations.
James Vickery, head of policy for ZEV regulations at the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles (OZEV), said in a post on LinkedIn: “This is a huge milestone for UK transport decarbonisation and for the OZEV ZEV regulations team.”